Stars Down

Where's Rossi Now?

Now that the reality show buzz has died, Rockstar: Supernova winner starts over with a new band.

“It’s very humbling, to say the least,” says Lukas Rossi of beginning anew in the music industry as the singer/guitarist for the alt-rock outfit Stars Down. In case you missed it, Rossi is better known as the heavily eyelinered dude who won Rock Star: Supernova — the reality TV show that promised the world a supergroup composed of Motley Crüe’s Tommy Lee, Metallica’s Jason Newsted, and Guns ’n’ Roses’ Gilby Clarke. Oh, and whoever won the American Idol -tyle competition. In the final mix, it turned out to be less of a supergroup and more of a superflop.

“It’s kind of like we’re starting from day one again and that’s cool,” Rossi says. “Winning a TV show is one thing, but winning for the right reasons is another. I have no qualms with starting over. From playing for 10,000 people a night to, like, 500 — it’s cool, man.”

I could say that Rossi sounds disillusioned with the whole “rock star” thing, seeing as he calls Supernova’s music “gimmicky.” But even though he went on a show whose touted prize was fame, Rossi says he never had delusions of stardom. “I’ve never been a big fan of the whole rock star motif,” he says. “It kind of confuses me, but that’s what they wanted to call the show and we had to call the band that, unfortunately.

“I don’t think you can become a rock star,” he continues. “I don’t think that you ‘act’ like a rock star ... Oh, you can act like a rock star. You can act like an idiot, you know? That’s a different type of rock star there.”

To Rossi the “je ne sais quoi” of someone able to get onstage and command attention is something inherent to the individual. Forced to define “rock star,” he says it’s someone who affects people with their music, writes honest songs, and reaches deep within to express something true to them and their fans. All of which Rossi is attempting to do with his new project, Stars Down.

With German Briseño on bass and lifelong friend Jon Jamieson on drums, Stars Down pumps out tortured pop-rock — think Three Days Grace with less scratchy vocals and catchier hooks. (Wait ... is that possible?) Stars Down, to Rossi, is more real.

“I try to get a lot of things off my chest,” he says, “and I also keep in mind the listeners out there. People who’ve gone through the things that I’ve gone through or worse things. I try to give them a little comfort where it’s needed or try to relate to them so they’re not alone in whatever they’re going through.

“To be honest, you have to go through some fucked-up times to really express yourself. There are a lot of people who have been spoon-fed and have been given things their whole life that are big rock stars now, and you can hear it in their music. You can also see it in the finer liner notes of who wrote the songs. When there’s, like, 15 people who wrote one song, it’s kind of pathetic. I’d rather write a song by myself and it be mediocre than write with 50 people and it be a smash hit around the world, when I didn’t do it.”

Stars Down might not result in superstardom, but it does mean Rossi will finally get the chance to be a rock star on his terms — the kind of musician he’s always dreamed of being.

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