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Kevin Skinner wins the 2009 America's Got Talent,
beating Barbara Padilla as one of the Top 2 Finalists!


IMAGE FROM NBC.COM

IMAGE FROM NBC.COM
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He started the fourth season of America’s Got Talent telling the judges wild stories from his days as a chicken-catcher. He finished it…as the million dollar winner, preparing to headline a Vegas show in a little over a month. Only in America! Kevin Skinner, the singer/guitarist from Mayfield, KY, beat out opera singer Barbara Padilla and music group Recycled Percussion (among other competition) to take home AGT’s top prize Wednesday night. He took some time today to chat about his victory, as well as his upcoming Vegas show.

Congratulations on winning America’s Got Talent! How does it feel?
It’s surreal, you know. You chase a dream for so long, and it’s hard to believe when you get a little recognition for things that you’ve done for so long. It’s a great feeling.

You wake up on Thursday morning and you say “holy crap. I’m a millionaire and I’ve got a performance contract.”
That’s how you feel. Like, this can’t be happening to me. One part of you says “okay, this has happened, now I’ve got to go through with it” and the other part is saying “how is this happening to me?” It’s kind of crazy, but in a good way.

At what point in Wednesday’s show did winning seem like a real possibility?
It was right up to the very end. I didn’t really know, and I’m sure nobody really knew. When they called out my name… I wasn’t really looking for it — I mean, I knew there was a chance they would, but I also knew there was a chance that they could call Barbara’s name, too. So it came as a big surprise.

What was it in the end that made America vote for you? What quality pushed you over the edge?
I kind of think — and I’ve heard a lot of people tell me this — that I connected with the audience, that people all across America were connected to me. I’m just a common, everyday person. I don’t look any different, more flashy than I would everyday. People connected with that. I’m kind of like the friend next door, you know? I think I also just chose a good song, too, and it turned out great. I think that’s what gave me the edge.

So you’re going to be headlining a show in Vegas. What happens between now and the start of the show?
Just…spending as much time with my family as I can, you know, and friends. Doing a little practicing, getting prepared. Maybe writing up a song list. Just being me for a little while before I have to go out and start playing again.

What is the show exactly?
I’ll be headlining a show that plays Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights, and one show on Sunday. I’ll be doing that every week. Some two-hour nights, some less. That was my understanding of it, though that could change. I was told it might be Planet Hollywood, but I’m not sure.

Will you be singing country only? Will that work for a Vegas crowd?
I can sing a variety of stuff…just need to feel the crowd out, have a variety of songs and go from there.

What was your most memorable moment from America’s Got Talent?
Probably when they played back my video on Wednesday’s show, leading up to me and Barbara standing out on stage. That was a great feeling, filled with a lot of emotion. It had been a lot of hard work — a long road to get up to that point. That was definitely the most memorable part of the show.

Photo Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBC




Kevin Skinner: Winner of America's Got Talent!
by Free Britney @ thehollywoodgossip.com


Kentucky native Kevin Skinner, an unemployed farmhand and longtime musician, was named the winner of NBC’s America’s Got Talent last night. Yee haw!

He beat out opera singer Barbara Padilla, his final competitor after almost 100,000 hopefuls auditioned for the fourth season of the NBC talent show.

“My heart was pounding, almost to the point that I thought it was going to come out of my chest,” Skinner said after winning the $1 million prize.

“I had never experienced anything like that and probably never will again, I would say, that dramatic. It’s the greatest feeling. I’m 35, so I have been chasing the dream for a while, and it hasn’t come true. It’s more than words can explain.”

Kevin Skinner has Got the most Talent in America!

Judge Sharon Osbourne summed up Kevin Skinner’s win: “Apparently, it was a really huge win, too. It’s just such a feel-good story that people just want him to win because he’s the everyman. All his life he’s been the underdog."

"He’s so genuine, what you see is what you get. He’s not contrived. So many people that come on this show kind of get sophisticated and try to play the game.”

Like Britain’s Got Talent sensation Susan Boyle, who performed on the AGT finale in her American musical debut, Kevin Skinner became an viral video star long before he took home the title yesterday evening. Congrats again, K!






Last night (Wednesday, Sept. 16), 35-year-old country balladeer Kevin Skinner grabbed the top prize in the fourth season of NBC's "America's Got Talent," winning $1 million and a chance to headline in Las Vegas.

"The American public aren't stupid," said judge Piers Morgan - who had named Skinner early on as one to watch -- right after the end of the competition. "They voted for him, because they recognized one of them. This is a guy off the porch in Kentucky, unemployed, used to catch chickens. Now he's won the biggest talent competition in the world."

With his wife, Kristen, his daughter, Sydney, his parents, his older brother and his wife, and his cousin and his wife, in attendance, Skinner wound up in the final two with opera singer and cancer survivor Barbara Padilla.

"It's starting to sink in," Skinner said after the competition, "and it's not fully yet. I think it'll be a while before it sinks in fully. I always tell everybody, when I walk out and play in front of 80 or 100,000 people, that's when it will sink in."

But he was full of praise for Padilla, whom he had cited to Zap2it as his biggest competition.

"I think she will move the industry, Barbara will," Skinner said. "She's got a voice that's out of this world. I'm sure she's had offers already for big engagements.

"If I'm able to be there, I sure will. I'd like to be there to watch that. It'll be a pleasure."

He also had admiring words for "Britain's Got Talent" runner-up Susan Boyle - who was also out of a job when she auditioned for the U.K. talent show - who made her American debut on the "AGT" finale with a stunning performance of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses."

"A natural that was discovered," Skinner said, "what I'd say, just in the nick of time."

Told that she's now married to a singing superstar, Kristin Skinner said, "Well, I always knew I was. This just puts the icing on the cake. I can really say it and mean it now."

While he did have on snakeskin boots, Skinner was not wearing his familiar baseball cap.

"But I do feel comfortable with a hat on," Skinner said. "I like to, every once in a while, go back to that look and let people know that I'm still the common person that I was."

At that moment, judge Sharon Osbourne swooped in to give Skinner a kiss on the cheek. He smiled and continued, "I don't want to get too far away from that. I just try to sing from what I'm feeling inside and hope that the people watching me will experience what I felt, and they can relate to it."




A million dollars richer, Skinner a humble Kentuckian
By Rich Copley - rcopley@herald-leader.com
(859) 231-3217
1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3217
(article @ www.kentucky.com)

At the beginning of the summer, Kevin Skinner had his guitar and his songs, but a million dollars and a gig in Vegas were hard to imagine. Today, things are different.

"I fit into that slot, man, where a lot of Americans do: just a working-class guy and trying to do whatever it takes to get by, kind of like everybody else," the Mayfield resident said Thursday afternoon, after his big win on TV's America's Got Talent Wednesday night. "I kind of feel like I kind of represent that portion of hard-working-class people.

"I know I've got a lot of fans," he said. "My heart goes out to every single one of them because, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be where I am now."

Trae Patton
© NBC Universal, Inc. - Former chicken catcher Kevin Skinner said he heard people "were dancing in the streets in Fancy Farm, a little town where I went to school."
1 'America's Got Talent' champion selected
2 AUDIO: Listen to Rich Copley's interview with Skinner
3 COMMENTARY: Why not being the next Susan Boyle was a key to his win

For winning the show, the former chicken catcher from Western Kentucky is now $1 million richer and booked to headline an America's Got Talent showcase in Las Vegas.

Skinner, 35, turned heads early in the televised competition, which aired this summer on NBC. He was compared to Susan Boyle, the frumpy Scottish church singer who created a sensation last spring on AGT's sister show, Britain's Got Talent.

"Her story kind of reminded me of mine," Skinner said of Boyle, who appeared on Wednesday's America's Got Talent live finale.

"She's a phenomenal singer, and you'll hear a lot of good things from her."

Like Boyle, Skinner looked as if he might be a joke when he arrived on the AGT stage with a backward baseball cap talking about his job catching chickens. But then he performed Garth Brooks' song If Tomorrow Never Comes, a sentimental favorite of his late grandmother. People started calling him the American Susan Boyle.

But Skinner didn't quite become an international sensation like Boyle, who ended up not winning the British series.

Going into Wednesday night's finale, Skinner hardly looked like a shoo-in. Many prognosticators favored opera singer Barbara Padilla of Houston, who finished second.

"It was a mystery right up to the end," Skinner said Thursday. "Barbara's got a phenomenal voice, and I know that she's going to have a great career."

While he was on stage in Los Angeles, Skinner said, he could imagine what it must have been like at Hill's Bar-B-Que in Mayfield, where he has played and where hometown fans gathered to watch the show.

"I would give anything to be a fly on the wall," Skinner said. "I heard they were dancing in the streets in Fancy Farm, a little town where I went to school. ... Mayfield was the same way. I heard a lot of people were really proud."

Darlene Watkins, who watched the show at Hill's with her family, told The Paducah Sun that Skinner's win "lets you realize your dreams can come true if you follow through with them."

Even though auditions for other talent shows such as American Idol and Nashville Star had been held nearby, Skinner said, this year's America's Got Talent was the first time he'd taken a shot at one of the shows.

Now that he's living the dream, Skinner couldn't come up with a big plan for the money, though several reporters on a conference call asked.

"Mmm," he said, the last time he was asked. "Maybe a truck. I've got a pretty decent vehicle now. I'm not much of a material person. As long as my family's taken care of and they're happy, I'm happy. I like to help my friends, too, because I believe in reaching out and helping others."

The big thing in his immediate future is the AGT showcase in Vegas, which will be hosted by TV personality and former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer.

Though Skinner seemed excited by the prospect of the show, it sounded as though one thing that probably won't change is his home base.

"I could get used to staying there and performing," Skinner said of Las Vegas. "But I'd definitely have to get back home and touch in with the family and my friends."