Indian River grad will show off his pipes on 'Oprah'

By Will Harris
Correspondent

When former Chesapeake resident Donnie Denny takes the stage on Thursday's episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" as a finalist in Oprah's Karaoke Challenge, he'll probably be a little nervous.

"People are asking me, 'Are you scared?' " Denny said. "And I've been saying, 'Uh, yeah, I'll be singing in front of about 7 million people, so just a little bit.' "

Denny, a graduate of Indian River High School, now lives in Hertford, N.C., where he owns Standard Plumbing. His family encouraged him to enter the karaoke challenge because of his singing with church groups and through karaoke.

"My sister-in-law said that Oprah was having a contest and I should enter," he said.

They tried to film an audition tape at Levels, a bar and restaurant in Elizabeth City. "I sang karaoke and we tried to videotape it, but it didn't come out very good... and nobody was paying any attention to me, anyway!"

Fortunately, Denny found better conditions at his church, South Mills Church of Christ. His performance of Lonestar's "Amazed" helped him to stand out among about 6,000 hopefuls in the karaoke challenge.

A show producer and film crew later visited him at the church to film him performing. That's when Winfrey herself called to tell him he was one of eight semifinalists.

As exciting as it was for Denny to receive the call, it was also a bit startling.

"The thing that caught me by surprise more than anything was that they handed me the phone as I was in the middle of going through the song for the third time," Denny said. "Oprah was really nice, but I was pretty much deaf and could barely hear her at all. Imagine me standing a foot from the speakers with the music blasting and someone hands you a cell phone and they're trying to talk to you. Plus, I had the lights all in my face, and suddenly everyone's moving a lot closer to me for some reason that's unknown to me.... I'm standing there like a deer in headlights!"

After competing on Winfrey's show Thursday, Denny was selected as one of the three finalists, along with Abraham McDonald of Los Angeles and Rob Weddle of Orlando, Fla.

He doesn't know what song he will perform this Thursday.

"I guess they have to get approval from the publishers," he said. "I gave them a list of several songs, and we'll see which one gets approved. I like 'Angels Among Us,' by Alabama and 'If You're Reading This' by Tim McGraw, I also like Lonestar's 'I'm Already There,' but being scared to death, it might be a little hard to hit those high notes. So my wife said that maybe that might not be a good choice."

Despite his moment of fame, Denny has not rushed to place a placard outside of his business reading "Home of the Singing Plumber."

"No, I haven't changed my sign," he said, laughing. "But if that's what I've got to do to get people to call, if that's what I have to do to make a living, then whatever it takes, man. I've got people here that need to eat. I'll sing to them on the phone when they call, no problem."

Will Harris, nonstoppop@cox.net