Celebrity Gossip From Las Vegas With Robin Leach | Luxe Life Digest

That really was country music king Toby Keith selling copies of his new CD White Trash With Money from midnight to 1AM this morning at the retail store he has along side his I Love this Bar & Grill (ILTB&G) at Harrah’s on the Strip. He’s been here all weekend promoting his new debut album of his own Show Dog Nashville record label – and a new movie Broken Bridges Labor Day weekend.

He premiered the new album by introducing each song and then playing the tracks for a two-hour session which was syndicated to 600 radio stations across America before personally meeting fans to sign autographs. Then to the surprise and delight of all he opened up the doors to fans – some of whom had driven in from out of state to hear him- so even they joined the VIPs and industry folk partying in his pub for a live acoustic performance with his longtime song-writing partner Scotty Emerick of some of the new songs. Toby is the first country artist to appear on Network Live concerts and had a record-breaking 850,000 downloads in the first 24 hours. His recent albums Honkeytonk U and Greatest Hits 2 have kept him the top selling country singer. All told in his amazing 13-year career he’s had 15 #1 hits and 10 platinum or multi-platinum selling albums.

The newest album is titled by Toby himself after a teenage girl got into a shouting spar with his daughter, Krystal in their hometown of Norman, Oklahoma. The girl accused Krystal of being "white trash with money." Toby’s wife was not amused but the singer laughed about it: "I am still amused by that ‘cause I make a living being white trash, and now I got myself an album to prove it." He talked exclusively with Luxe Life before debuting the new CD at the listening party:

"It's an evolution. A little more raw, less slick and earthier than anyone’s heard before. I’m enjoying owning my own record company. It's exactly what I thought it would be -- not a big undertaking although it looks as if it is. If you have the right people who share the same dream then it's OK. My old record company merged back into that corporate bullshit: away from Nashville and back into Hollywood and I said 'I am not going to live like this.' I am not going to renegotiate. It was time for me to get out and away from that and I did. When the record company found out I was leaving they started dissolving the brand name and one by one letting the staff go but as they were fired I said I’m going to hire these people. So one by one they came to me. We are now the strongest label in town. I predict- now you know I am fearless and people want to see me fail -but we will be the #1 label in five years. We’re so involved right now that the 2 or 3 people closest to me in the artist world deserve their shot. Rebecca Lynn Harris is the best singer and has been overlooked terribly."

"After we get up and running we’ll listen to anybody and everybody -- even if they’re local Vegas musicians and singers. I’m not a hypocrite." Toby concluded with a comment on Vegas: "We have our favorite restaurants and bars such as Spago where we did dinner Saturday night but always wind up back here at Harrah’s. ILTB&G is my environment, my element – we may sneak over to another place for steak or sushi but we always come back to the local hub." Don’t be surprised this country boy loves sushi. They’ve been "eating cut bait for years in Oklahoma."

Toby said his new movie will star singer Lindsey Haun who is signed to his label, as his daughter. In Broken Bridges, he plays an old country songwriter that drank himself into a career coma. His next film will be one based from his video "Beer for My Horses" about a ‘fish out of water’ cop. He hopes to continue doing at least one movie a year. He’s hoping also this year to open three more of his "Bar and Grills" to go with the three already open in his partnership with Harrah’s.
Toby will appear with Jay Leno on the Tonight Show Tuesday evening and tomorrow with Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show before taping an episode of Ellen next Monday and then begin a 50-city tour. "We’ll try to reach out to every fan we have," he summed up.

Jason & the Partynauts
There was an all-star turnout for TAO nightclub king Jason Strauss’ birthday at which Paris Hilton (pictured here, more photos in album)sang her debut album as we told you yesterday in Luxe Life. Sister Nicky danced up a storm to Britney Spears' "I’m a Slave 4U." The double display won raves from Ice Cube and Jay-Z in one corner and Jamie Lynn Sigler, Shannon Elizabeth and Lisa Ling holding court in another corner.

Talk about elbow-to-elbow, I was dead-center in an entire wall of celebs including actor Taye Diggs, supermodel Janice Dickinson, rocker Scott Weiland and even fight announcer Michael Buffer was ready to rumble. Flashbulbs went into frenzy when a parade of scantily clad cocktail girls holding sparklers brought in a large football shaped cake – and guests were then given football jerseys emblazoned with the number 17 -- not to mark his age, but his former playing position. Earlier we’d all enjoyed an incredible Asian dinner in the TAO restaurant which kicked off with heavyweight comedy star Jeff Beacher bringing in 50 of his Beacher Babes to sing "Happy Birthday" for Jason. Other celebs who joined the celebration that seemed to never stop included rappers Lil John (jumping around to his co-hit "Yeah" with Usher when it was played), Nas, Kellis, Fabulos, Young Jeezy, poker wiz Antonio ‘The Magician’ Esfandaro and Jon Gries (who played Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite) hosting the birthday blast.

"This sure raised the roof of Vegas," said Jason. "I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday." The only thing that went wrong was when MTV VJ Vanessa Manillo, recently dating Nick Lachey, was removed from TAO by security for allegedly getting into a girl-on-girl cat-fight near the dance-floor. (Nick and Nessa got comfy behind drawn curtains in a VIP bed at Pure that same night.) Meantime, 24-hours later Beacher was hosting Hard Rock owner Harry Morton’s birthday blast – and all I can ask was how did they ever smuggle a goat into the penthouse suite for that bacchanalian bash? Christina Aguilera walked in and out of the party because, as one reveler put it, "It was probably what you'd imagine everything the Devil would have at his own party."

In Other News
As if the weekend wasn’t starry enough with Queen’s first public performance in 20-years with Paul Rogers taking on the Freddy Mercury mantle at MGM Grand the stars were everywhere you went. Here’s a peek inside my notebook:

And finally congratulations to Jim Belushi who actually closed the Light nightclub in the wee hours after a party night of dancing and drinking tequilas. Earlier with pal Dan Aykroyd as the infamous Blues Brothers, they performed at a Patron spirits company party for 300 guests celebrating sales records. Can we please get our breath back before the next star invasion of our town?

Yes, Way
A record of another kind got set when professional skateboarder Danny Way dropped from the top of the near 80 ft. tall neon Hard Rock Hotel guitar – to achieve a new world record for longest skateboarding free fall. He "drop bombed" 28 vertical feet to land on his skateboard and speed at almost 60mph down the 56 ft. high ramp -- not once but twice! And this guy is afraid of heights that he told me. "I watched them for four days building this. My heart and my stomach have been in knots. No question this islike staring death in the jaws. If something goes wrong it could easily be the end."

Danny already held the world record for the longest distance, 79 ft., ever jumped on a skateboard and is the only skateboarder to have jumped from a helicopter onto a ramp. He’s also the only person to jump the Great Wall of China without using a motorized vehicle. The Encinitas, California resident is a regular Vegas visitor and is now convinced that having safely jumped almost 30 ft. he will one day push the edge of the envelope up to 50 ft., his new goal.

Tonight's Tips for April 11
It’s the season finale of Inked on A&E with the gang from Hart and Huntington’s Tattoo Company at the Palms joining Butch Walker, body art by Noah and a fashion show with celebrity guests for the party at ghostbar of the Palms resort hotel.

Stay In Touch
You can make your own indelible impression on us by sending your designs to robinsvegas@aol.com  Tomorrow, we’ll go inside the minds of the world’s greatest poker players, then laugh with new comedy partners David Brenner & George Wallace.

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