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BuDDy
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#125 BuDDy Age:
50+ (est.) |
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Rising from obscurity out of the Tri-Cities area, where he toiled for decades as a used car salesman by day and (by all accounts) a mediocre honky-tonk country-western singer by night, BuDDy had his share of run-ins with the law and with the everyday institutions and annoyances of life and was -- by his own account -- headed nowhere. As a result of what he describes as a mystical experience in 1998 which he is hesitant to discuss in detail, he suddenly found himself on the fast track to stardom, with multi-platinum CDs, sold-out mega-stadium concerts, television guest spots, eight-figure endorsement deals and -- more recently -- feature film deals in the works involving unprecedented amounts of money.
A mysterious consortium of mostly foreign investors is evidently convinced that BuDDy is the essence of America, the true cultural icon of our time, and has bankrolled numerous projects, with extraordinary portions of the up-front monies going directly to BuDDy. Entertainment icons David Geffen, Steven Spielberg, David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey are reportedly heavily involved in directing BuDDy's career, after overcoming his initial resistance to authority.
His political pronouncements and endorsements, while passionate and often even coherent, have been a frequent source of embarrassment, but BuDDy's handlers insist it's all carefully thought out. Similarly, his website, BuDDy's Old Fashioned Website and his podcast, BuDDy's Old Fashioned Podcast, have been called amateurish, but BuDDy's team insists it's all calculated and considered within the context of BuDDy's focus-group-tested motto, "We just want to be your friend."
Considering his ascent in our rankings (he was #273 on last year's list), BuDDy and his team must be doing something right.