James Barry Poole (born December 18, 1964) is an American country music artist who records under the name Cledus T. Judd.
Judd has released 11 studio albums and two EPs, and several singles have entered the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.
By 1993, he was living in a house with Daron Norwood and preparing to move back home until he wrote a parody of "Indian Outlaw" by Tim McGraw, which made him decide to pursue a career as a parodist.
[3] Two non-country parodies were also included on this album: one of the Eagles' "Hotel California", and one of "We Are the World", a 1980s charity single credited to USA for Africa.
It included a duet, this time with Daryle Singletary on "Ricky Tidwell's Momma's Gonna Play Football", a non-parody song previously recorded by Tim Wilson.
It was originally to have been on Judd's previous album, but Brooks had initially expressed concern over a parody compromising the song's chances at winning a Grammy Award.
Due to the closure of Koch's Nashville division, however, this album was delayed until 2007, when Judd signed to Asylum-Curb Records and released it in August.
The album includes a parody of Little Big Town's "Pontoon" titled "Honeymoon", the video of which was directed by Laura Bell Bundy.
On November 5, he released a new single titled "Luke Bryan", a parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", which features guest rapping from Colt Ford.
[7] In a January 2015 article in Billboard, Judd announced that he would be retiring from the music industry, as he felt that he had lost the desire to continue, and wanted to focus on raising his daughter instead.
He also revealed past struggles with a cocaine addiction and suicide attempts, and said that he made the decision to change his lifestyle after becoming baptized.
[8] Judd was one of the co-writers of the song "Three Feet of Water", the final track on Brantley Gilbert's album The Devil Don't Sleep.
[10] Judd has toured as an emcee with such acts as Brooks and Dunn, Brad Paisley, Trace Adkins, Toby Keith, the Dixie Chicks, Shania Twain, and Montgomery Gentry.
Judd's television work includes a stint as the co-host of CMT Most Wanted Live from 2002 to 2004 and as a "special correspondent" on the 2005 season of Nashville Star.
His parodies are often topical in nature, such as "My Cellmate Thinks I'm Sexy", a parody of Kenny Chesney's "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" which addressed Chesney's and Tim McGraw's 2000 arrest after stealing a Mounted Reserve deputy's horse;[13] or "Waitin' on Obama", which he released shortly before President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.
Initially, Judd sang in an intentionally off-key, nasal voice with an affected Southern accent, described by Country Standard Time critic Ken Burke as "Junior Samples on helium.