Josh Gracin battles back

"American Idol" is the biggest TV show in America, but its track record as a launching pad for successful musical careers is spotty at best. For every bona fide discovery like Kelly Clarkson or Chris Daughtry, there are a half-dozen Anthony Federovs or Anwar Robinsons, contestants who, after the show, fade into the abyss and are never heard from again.

Josh Gracin was one of the lucky ones. The stocky Marine from the show’s second season parlayed his “Idol” exposure into a promising country career, and his self-titled 2004 album spawned three hit singles, “I Want to Live,” “Nothin’ to Lose” and “Brass Bed.” It went gold, selling more than 697,000 copies, only 4,000 fewer than fifth season “Idol” champ Taylor Hicks.

Gracin’s career seemed to be taking off, but a funny thing happened on the way to his second album. Singles were released to radio and quickly fizzled, and more than two years of release dates came and went. The CD, originally titled “All About Y’All,” was eventually scrapped and re-recorded.

His second CD, “We Weren’t Crazy,” was released on April Fools’ Day, and Gracin is hoping the joke’s not on him.

“I was very disappointed when it didn’t come out, but like everything else in my life, it seems to have worked out for my benefit,” says Gracin, 27, munching on a burger at Red Robin earlier this spring.

“If I would have come out and had two hits in a row, a lot of the problems I had — as far as people around me, as far as myself, where my head was at — it would have been a disaster.”

He avoids getting into specifics, but he hints at butting heads with those in his inner circle as the “We Weren’t Crazy” drama unfolded, as well as the near-destruction of his marriage to his high school sweetheart in the same time period.

He says the situation humbled him, made him re-evaluate his attitude, and helped him avoid being dragged through “a downplayed, countrified version of what Britney Spears is going through now.”

Gracin, the middle child of five — he has four sisters, ages 34 to 21 — grew up listening to oldies and pop music. He had no occasion to listen to country music until 1992, when a Top-40 radio station pulled a stunt and played Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places” on a continuous loop for several days. Brooks’ country twang, entirely foreign to Gracin at the time, piqued his interest and left him wanting more. “That was the turning point,” he says.

After high school, Gracin briefly attended Western Michigan University before joining the Marine Corps. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton outside of San Diego, and served as a MOS 3043, a supply administration and operations clerk, tracking shipping and receiving orders.

While in the Marines, Gracin tried out for “American Idol” at the urging of his wife, Ann Marie. The crew-cut-wearing Gracin had talent, but he also had a gimmick: He was a Marine, and season two was airing as America was entering into a war with Iraq. In the end, the timing played into Gracin’s hands. “I’m not naïve enough to think it was just my talent” that got him on the show, Gracin says.

He finished fourth on “Idol,” behind Kimberly Locke, Clay Aiken and winner Ruben Studdard.

After the show, he signed with Disney-owned Lyric Street Records — home to one of Gracin’s favorite acts, Rascal Flatts — and released his debut album in June 2004. Success followed, and Gracin played concerts with Brad Paisley, Trace Adkins and more.

A follow-up was recorded and was slated to be released in 2006. But when its first single, “Favorite State of Mind” — a fun, highly charged rocker that name checks nearly every state in the Union — stalled at radio, the album entered a holding pattern that lasted more than two years.

Gracin is a different man than he was two years ago — literally. He started gaining weight a few months before leaving the Marines in 2004 and eventually bulked up to 285 pounds, but he’s shed 65 pounds in the past 13 months.

He never appeared overweight — his thick, 6-foot frame carried his mass well — and he’s now well on his way to his target weight of 200 pounds.

He’s also different mentally.

After the success of his debut album, “I was getting full of myself, I really was,” he says.

“I couldn’t lay back and let things happen, I was always pushing for more. And I had to learn it’s OK to push for more, but when you come across as not appreciating the people around you and what they’re doing for you, that’s bad.”

Gracin says during this time his attitude soured toward the music industry, and Nashville’s “just be the artist” mindframe in particular. Had the second CD been released and become a hit, “I would have been in a really bad place, because it would have been justifying my behavior, and that’s the worst thing you can do.”

He says the bickering with his label and the industry machine led to fractured relationships that are still being patched. And now he’s faced with an even bigger fight, trying to re-stoke the interest of an often-fickle public, four years after his last album appeared on store shelves.

The 11-song “We Weren’t Crazy” was held due to timing issues, says Lyric Street publicist Cindy Heath, to “ensure Josh the best opportunities for continued success.”

The CD is garnering positive reviews; Billboard’s Ken Tucker calls it “a solid follow-up” and says “Unbelievable (Ann Marie)” — a song Gracin penned for his wife — “might be this decade’s ‘Amazed,’” a reference to Lonestar’s monster 1999 smash which, ironically, Gracin sang on “Idol.”

Gracin’s relationship with his wife has been as rocky as the road to “We Weren’t Crazy’s” release. Two years ago, he gave his ring back to her and was ready to call it quits, following months of fighting stemming from his being on the road and her being at home with their three children.

Now, he knows sticking it out was the right thing to do.

Listening to the new album’s “I Don’t Want to Live” — “I admit I was wrong all along, now you’re gone with all that I’d been living for/ I don’t wanna live without you, anymore” — Gracin says, “I know I made the right decision every time I hear this song.”

“We Weren’t Crazy” includes three songs Gracin wrote or co-wrote, songs which made it on the album only after the delays took hold and the album was re-recorded. In that sense, Gracin says he’s pleased the record hit the roadblocks it did, and says they helped make a better album.

“It’s all about having an album you can listen to front to back, and when this gets out there, hopefully that’s what people will see,” he says.