Here's an interesting tidbit that came up on my Google alert today!

It's about how famous voice-over actor Jess Harnell got his start. It was from imitating Glenn Frey! Here's the excerpt that talks about it:

"Nancy Cartwright: I want to know how you got started: tell me about your early years -- did you always want to do voice-overs?

Jess Harnell: That's a very interesting question and it's kind of a neat tale. I got started by being a rock and roll singer. You'd never guess that if you saw me, but those are my beginnings. I always was a mimic and I always loved to parrot voices, from the time when I was a little, little kid. I started by doing impressions of my family and that graduated into people I saw on TV and in movies. So, I was singing in bands and my dad, meanwhile, was a big composer for TV and film. One time he happened to mention to me that he was angry because "The Prince" (he thought Prince, the singer, was "The Prince") wanted a lot of money to use one of his songs on a TV show my dad was doing and he said he was going to have to get a sound-alike. I asked what a sound-alike was. He said, "That's when you get a guy who imitates the guy on the record and you just have to pay them a scale payment and you can use the song." I said, "Dad, I can imitate all these singers." And he said, "This isn't jumping around at the Roxy in your spandex, this is real show business." I asked him to let me try -- let me try to learn it!

NC:
And you were in your 20s? Your teens?

JH:
Hmm, how old was I? I was 21. Well, it wound up that I didn't do it for Prince, but my dad called me up and he said, "Have you ever heard of Glenn Fryes?" I said, "Do you mean Glenn Frey?" And he said, "Whatever! He's got a song called 'The Heat Song,' do you know 'The Heat Song?'" I was trying desperately to figure out what my father's "code" was and I said, "Do you mean 'The Heat is On?'" and he said, "Yes! Can you sing that exactly like Glenn Frey?" I said yes and he said, "Don't say that -- that's not professional -- you need to go listen to it, make sure you can and let me know and then maybe I'll hire you." That said, he said he'd call me back in a half hour and as I was saying that it wasn't enough time, he hung up on me.

NC:
What did you do?

JH: I ran to the record store, bought the record, took it home, wrote down the lyrics, even all the "woos!" and "yeahs," learned it, called him, and he told me to sing it. I put the record on in the background to sing along and he said, "No, I've heard the record, I want to hear you sing it -- sing it a cappella." Uh... OK. So I sang it to him. I finished and heard, "Hmmm… Hmmm... Alright, this might work. Be at Warner Bros. tomorrow at eight in the morning." Eight in the morning? He said, "That's right, you've got to be up early if you're going to be in show business!" So I went in, sang the thing. It went great and I began to market myself as a session singer. I knew even then how important marketing was in terms of establishing your career."

- From "Nancy Cartwright Chats with Jess Harnell"