When it comes to judging talent competitions, someone has the play the bad guy. Throughout this season of Nashville Star, popular country singer/songwriter John Rich of Big & Rich fame has spoken his mind without mincing words after each performance from this year's country hopefuls. As Nashville Star winds down, with the final three contestants squaring off on Monday, August 4, Music City will be abuzz after up and coming singing sensations Gabe Garcia, Melissa Lawson, and Shawn Mayer take to the stage.

On the Friday before the finale, we caught up with John Rich on a conference call to get his thoughts on the season and who he thinks has the best shot to become the next Nashville Star.

THE DEADBOLT: Given the huge gap of being a star like Faith Hill and a Nashville Star like Shawn Mayer, what's the most important thing a young singer can do to shorten that distance?

JOHN RICH: Well, one thing a young singer can do to shorten the distance is get on Nashville Star and win it. [laughs] Or just get on Nashville Star and have a good showing. You're talking about millions and millions of core country fans watching the show. If you think about six or seven million people that are country music fans watching the show, how many stadiums would you have to fill up at 80,000 people per stadium? How many times would you have to play in front of a crowd that big to equal what you get at one shot at Nashville Star? I mean the math is just incredible. So I think if you make a good showing, that's the first thing you do.

Now when the show is over - and I've told the three finalists this - I told them this the other day, "Only one of you is going to win the show and the other two, whoever that is, need to have an exit strategy or you need to have something lined up. You need to be showcasing in Nashville within twenty days of the show being over because people in Nashville are interested in you guys. I'm telling you right now - you have fans, you have people that are voting for you by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions." And they hadn't even thought of that. I said, "Yeah, don't let the heat of what you got going on here, don't let that escape you. Take advantage of it." And I believe any one of these three finalists, whether they win the show or not, could have a record deal before the end of 2008 if they play their cards right.

THE DEADBOLT: Since you have to be tough to play inside the industry, what can you do to find a balance between being too aggressive and being smart?

RICH: Well, here's the balance that I try to strike, and that is you can be as aggressive as you want, as long as it's on behalf of finding the greatest thing you can. And that goes with my own personal career. As long as you always have the music as the main focus and not your own ego or anything else, it's always about is this the best I have - Can I do this? Is this what the audience deserves to hear? Is this my best foot forward? I think you can be as aggressive as you want. And as far as my role as a judge, I feel I can be as aggressive as I want to as long as I don't disrespect the person on the stage.

When I tell Coffey, "Coffey, wearing a cowboy hat doesn't make you country, man. I'm not hearing one country sound come out of your voice right now." You know, that's what I really felt and I didn't find it to be disrespectful at all. I found it to be true and the viewers at home backed me up; they voted him off. It had nothing to do with the fact - I didn't say, "You're not talented." I didn't say, "I don't like you." I didn't say, "Hey, you look silly." I said, "In my opinion, you're not the guy that can get this job done." As long as you respect the person and you always put the music first, I think you can be as aggressive as you want to.

THE DEADBOLT: When I spoke to Jeffrey Steel about the voting, he said it sometimes felt like the public almost voted against you guys out of spite. Was there ever a fear of that, getting the wrong person through to the end?

RICH: No, not for me there wasn't, because the country audience wants to hear what they want to hear. They're not going to vote somebody in there because they dislike what the judges are saying and they're going to prove a point. Not at the end of the day. Some people might have taken that angle, but look who we have in the final three - Melissa Lawson, Gabe Garcia, Shawn Mayer - all three people that could get record deals anyway. There's no fluff in the final three, these are all real deal artists. So I never worried about it because I know our audience and I know that they would never do that.

Other Conference Call Highlights:

John Rich on who he thinks should win and who he thinks will win:

"Who do I think will win? God almighty. I would say out of the three, Gabe and Melissa are without a doubt, in my opinion, vocally head and shoulders above Shawn Mayer. Just as straight ahead singers, they're head and shoulders above her, and I also think their stories are really compelling. You know, being a mother of five, that is so representative of a lot of our listeners in country and we don't have somebody like Melissa as a star in country music. We have big female artists who are mothers, but they became that after they were famous or as they were going in their career. They didn't show up on the scene with three or four kids. That is very unique to have somebody like Melissa Lawson on the verge of potentially winning this thing. And I think the music you could record on her, that speaks to her life and would connect with millions of Americans is mind boggling to be honest with you.

"Gabe Garcia, being a Hispanic American country singer, you know it's the fastest growing segment of our society, the Hispanic people, and I personally grew up in that neighborhood. I know those guys. Some of my childhood friends were Mexican kids that I grew up and went to school with every day and I know that we haven't had a bridge to that community of the United States in a long long time, and never really had a serious one ever. Not that was multi platinum success. So he has an incredible angle and an incredible story as well. So I'd say out of the three I personally believe it's between Gabe and Melissa at this point, and I would be happy to produce either on of them. And if Shawn sneaks up and takes it away from them, I think there's massive potential with her as well. But if you're asking me as a betting man who do I think, I think it's Gabe or Melissa and I think it's a horse race, I think it's too close to call."

On some of the voting injustices he's seen this season:

"I thought Pearl Heart really had something cool going on. And when Pearl Heart got thrown off, and Laura and Sophie got to stay, that was a glaring mistake in my opinion. And maybe that's what you were speaking to earlier, you know the people sitting at home going, "You know I'm gonna vote for Laura and Sophie just because I'm mad at what Jewel or what John and Jeff said or whatever." Maybe that was an example of that because Pearl Heart, those girls can really sing. They were green and they do have a long ways to go. But I know, for instance, Jeffrey Steele is currently working with them, so they've got the juice. And that was kind of a weird moment in the show. But hey, that's going to happen. I don't think Pearl Heart would've had a shot of winning the show, because if you look at people like Gabe and Melissa, they're just so much better and much more prepared. But that's what's made it fun, I'm a black jack player man and you never know what that next card is going to be and that's what keeps you at the table."