American’s Got Talent Singing Cowboy Hank Decato
Hank Decato, 77, of Bakersfield, a singing cowboy in the spirit of Gene Autry, auditioned for the NBC show “America’s Got Talent” in April.
Springer is the show’s new host, while “The Hoff” is one of the show’s celebrity judges. The talent competition series kicks off its two-hour season premiere at 9 p.m. Tuesday on KGET-TV 17 — and Decato thinks he has a good chance of being on it.
The 77-year-old performer and real estate agent auditioned for the show in April, and felt pretty good about the reaction from show executives.
“I struck it lucky,” Decato said. “The producer was a big fan of Gene Autry. I did ‘Back in the Saddle Again,’ and he said, ‘All right, man.’”
Publicists with the series say they won’t know until the show airs Tuesday whether Decato, or any other hopeful, will be included.
A lot of acts end up on the cutting room floor, they said.
“America’s Got Talent” showcases a wide variety of singers, dancers, comedic performers and acts of all ages. Performers who are picked from the thousands of auditions have a chance to strut and perform in front of a panel of judges including Hasselhoff, reality TV star and rock ‘n’ roll wife Sharon Osbourne, and United Kingdom TV personality Piers Morgan.
But this isn’t Decato’s first turn in the limelight.
Much of his life has been dedicated to emulating, befriending and documenting the lives and legends of the singing cowboys, especially the one he considers the greatest of them all.
“Gene Autry was my idol,” Decato said.
He so admired Autry that he became a singing cowboy himself — not the kind who herds cattle on America’s rangelands, but the tamer breed formed in Hollywood westerns and early television serials designed to slake the public’s thirst for uncomplicated heroes in an ever more complicated world.
At this stage in his life, Decato would like nothing more than to give Americans — especially America’s youth — a taste of the ideals he believes the singing cowboys personified: personal honor, courage, love of country and other virtues that he says are reflected in the music and attitudes of old-fashioned heroes like Autry.
“Young people today, they don’t have no heroes anymore,” he said. “They don’t know what side of the fence to stand on.”