Digital Extras

4.24.2001
LET'S GO TO THE VIDEO
Family, fans and friends of Billy Gilman head to PPAC for taping

By PETER B. LORD
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — The teenage girls shrieked with joy. They clapped their hands overhead. And every time country music sensation Billy Gilman strode across the stage front, they stretched their hands to him, hoping for just a touch.

When he reached back, they screamed some more.

Every emotional nuance was filmed by cameras stationed all over the stage at the Providence Performing Arts Center last night. One swung overhead on a crane as colored lights flashed.

Billy, 12, lip-synched the words to his new hit single "She's My Girl" again and again before the shrieking fans as a production crew gathered images for a music video that will accompany the new single, scheduled for release May 8.

Gilman and his family decided to make this video a keepsake of his childhood and his home, so they invited relatives and friends from Richmond to the taping at PPAC.

The public was invited, too, but word only got out on "Cat Country" WCTK radio, so many of the 200 or so people in the crowd were Billy's cousins, neighbors and friends. His grandparents sat in the crowd while his parents watched from behind the stage.

"I called some people," said his mother, Fran Gilman. "I want Billy to look back when he's 22 and say, 'Those are the kids I went to school with.' "

While award-winning Los Angeles video director Brent Hedgecock was trying to create the impression of a live concert, that will only be a part of the video.

On Sunday the crew also taped Billy in front of PPAC, as well as working inside, "selling" tickets to a dozen girls recruited from the Wheeler School, which one of his friends attends.

They took the girls to a shop and bought ice cream, and you'll probably see that on the video, too.

At the age of 12, Billy is too young to be focusing on one girl for the "She's My Girl" video, said his tour manager, Elle Warnick. So the video will include images of Billy with his grandmother, and his mother, in addition to all the screaming fans.

"We want Billy's girl to be every girl," Warnick said.

It's been a tough few days for Billy, who had four teeth pulled.

But backstage Billy greeted each visitor warmly.

"PPAC! What better place to do a performance," he proclaimed.

And every time Hedgecock called, Billy bounded across the stage and sang his song again.

"She's my girl — a walkin', talkin' angel, baby. My girl — not a minute goes by when she ain't lookin' pretty .."

With each chorus, his band members jump off platforms and croon into microphones. Billy smiles, and strides back and forth across the stage. The little girls, along with some of their mothers and brothers, scream and throw him flowers.

One fan, 14-year-old Tiffany Desper, of Providence, says she started following Billy before he became famous, seeing him once at a car dealership.

"I know his favorite colors. I know his favorite food," she says.

But why does she like him so much?

"He's a great singer.

"And he's cute, too!"

Gilman has a busy summer planned. He is going on tour with another fast-rising country star, 17-year-old Jessica Andrews. He is also scheduled to be a headliner this summer on Aug. 18 at the Washington County Fair.