Reprinted without permission
September 4, 1996
Award show gets its man -- Paul Gross
By ANIKA VAN WYK
Calgary Sun
Paul Gross is trading in his scarlet Mountie's tunic for western duds.
The Calgary-born actor best known for his role as Benton Fraser on Due South, will host the 10th annual Canadian Country Music Award show Monday. The show will be broadcast live from Calgary's Jubilee Auditorium.
"After I hosted the Gemini Awards (1995) ... I said I'd kill to do the Country Music Awards," Gross told Sun Country in a phone interview from his home in Toronto.
"I am a country fan. It's the last bastion of melody. That's all I really listen to," he says.
Gross is more than a passive country fan -- he is currently recording a "country-folk" CD with his buddy David Keeley.
"I actually like it better then acting. It is more immediate," says Gross.
The duo, who are wavering between the names Badlands and Tall Men Short Shadows, hope their CD will be out in late fall.
Gross has no plans to give up acting: "I'll try to keep juggling both."
Right now however, he's concentrating on his hosting duties.
"It's terribly nerve-racking and I'm not really sure why I agreed to do it. But once you get started it's fun.
"I don't think there's much to it. Some people make the show about them but really you're a traffic cop: Basically, you get people on and off the stage and hopefully make the dull bits between the acts and presentations more bearable to watch," says Gross.
"David Letterman made the fatal error of making the Oscars the David Letterman show. I think the ones who are the best, are the people who are themselves ... like Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal."
Gross has mixed feelings about the end of Due South -- the final episode airs next week.
"I'm kind of ambivalent. I think it deserved to go on another season but it's really a cut-throat business and I won't miss the hours.
"The sad thing is it's going to be impossible to make a show like that in Canada again because you have to have American support. It's kinda a bad sign in general for the industry," says Gross.