Rockwall Rock Stars Winners!

Elvis has left the building! And he did not win. Look alikes: Ozzy Osbourne, KISS, Bob Dylan, British invasion rockers, lady rockers and more strived to be Rockwall’s #1 Rock Star, but only three could take home the top prizes…

This summer Rockwall Rock Star and Peghead Guitars, a local music store specializing in guitars and accessories, were determined to put Rockwall on the Rock and Roll map. To that end, they sponsored a contest to see who in our area might have the Rock Star gene hidden beneath the surface, just waiting to shine. Thus was born the Rockwall Rock Star contest.

Contestants were invited to dress up as rock stars, or their favorite performers, and were judged on costume, hair and attitude. The contest attracted over 50 applicants. Judging proved to be a difficult task, but the winners have been announced…

Congratulations to these top rock stars!

First Prize – $2500 went to Kaleb Fulton, who did his personal take on the legendary Jimi Hendrix.

Kaleb embodies the determination and hard work it took to come out on top of a very competitive crowd. When we spoke to him, it seemed his win hadnt yet fully sunk in.

The student comes to Peghead Guitars often and had just bought a guitar. When someone told him about the contest he decided to enter and do an Elvis theme. However, just before buying a costume, he saw on the web that a friend was going to enter as Elvis too.

Kaleb said, “I thought maybe I could still do Elvis and just do it better. Then another friend told me he was also going to do Elvis. I figured there was no way I was going to do Elvis now, so I started looking at costume stores to get ideas. I found that costume stores were really expensive, and I couldnt afford to do this on just the off chance that I would win. I went home pretty discouraged.”

The night before the deadline, a friend told Kaleb that his mom had some costume stuff. “We started rummaging around the closets, and ended up finding a jacket, a vest, a wig and some other things. We started throwing all this stuff together and putting it on and got to thinking it kind of looked like Jimi Hendrix, so I figured Id shoot for that look.”

With the look almost complete Kaleb went to Goodwill. He laughed sheepishly as he mentioned buying women’s jeans, and at Dollar General he bought some dark foundation. The process of coloring his face, chest, elbows and feet took about an hour.

“Then I came down here with my guitar. I didnt think I had a really good chance of winning, since I had just thrown everything together at the last minute. But, I guess it turned out pretty good.”

Kaleb plans to go to Dallas Baptist for Music Engineering. He will use the prize money to buy some recording software and a Mac computer to get used to recording techniques and gain experience before going to school.

Whitney Jenkins from Rockwall took second place and a Taylor Koa SolidBody guitar for her studded leather impression of Kiss Gene Simmons.

Whitney didn’t remotely resemble the persona she adopted for her rock star character. She was soft-spoken and not sure what to say about her win. Currently a sophomore at Dallas Baptist University, Whitney spends her weekends at her parents’ home in Rockwall where she grew up. Her costume was completely homemade, even though she doesn’t sew. We were surprised and asked how she accomplished the look.

Whitney: I don’t sew so I used fake leather upholstery, hot glued it and used metal studs all over it.

PR: So you cut out the pattern and hot glued the pieces together instead of sewing it?

Whitney (laughs): It was a lot easier that way. I used 2x4s to make the soles for the platform boots and rolled up construction paper for the spikes. I basically got everything from Hobby Lobby.

Randy Linnstaedter of Rockwall took home Third prize – $500 store credit. Randy, a musician and collector of guitars, stated he entered because he saw the young people having fun with it and thought he would give it a try. His 80’s rocker look and attitude caught the attention of the judges. If you look closely at his winning photo you may notice that his arm band is a scouting kerchief, borrowed from his son.

Randy’s guitar collection includes new and vintage instruments, some over 40 years old. His favorite is a 1994 Taylor acoustic guitar. Though Randy owns several of his own, the guitar used in his winning photo is a $3,000 Paul Reed Smith chosen at Peghead Guitars showroom on the day of photos.

The 80’s rocker is a fan of Peghead Guitars and commended the store owner, Raymond Jowers, for all the work put into the contest that went from May 9 to August 8. He stated the contest was an extraordinary event and the prizes were very generous. He cannot recall any of the larger established Dallas music stores doing anything like this.

So what’s next in the Rockwall Rock Star line-up? Raymond and Diego are already making plans for another contest. If you didn’t win this time, don’t be discouraged, other opportunities will appear in the future. As a sneak peek… the next contest will involve guitar playing. Stay tuned… and until then, keep rocking!

Raymond Jowers and Kaleb Fulton (Jimi Hendrix) at Peghead Guitars in Rockwall