Cee Lo Green is looking for his Curb Your Enthusiasm moment.
The Voice coach turned up at the Television Critics Association’s semiannual tour Friday to peddle his new, TBS “reality-based” show, appropriately titled CeeLo’s Goodie Life. In his 20 minutes or so before the press, the dynamic multi-hyphenate suggested that the series would offer viewers a more authentic look at him and his hip-hop group, Goodie Mob.
"I didn’t want to do another reality show. I wanted to do something innovative and cutting edge,” he told reporters, noting that he's inspired by vehicles like Larry David's semi-autobiographical HBO entry. And yes, Green, dressed in head-to-toe camouflage garb, is confident there are still things people don’t know about him. “I think I've established quite a bit of mystique," he said, adding of his desire to keep people guessing: "I’m ambiguous and elusive and very artful in my approach to expressing myself."
What’s more, he’s excited to showcase a softer side of the group, and the kind of intimacy that comes with some 20 years together. “We literally are one big happy family,” he said of fellow Goodie Mob band members, Big Gipp, T-Mo and Khujo, who flanked him on stage. The summer series will follow the foursome as they prepare to release their first album in 14 years. “A lot of the time the music that we’ve done and the albums that we’ve released have had serious overtones of social politics and commentary, so I think it would do our audience a great [service] to see us unplugged."
Much of the filming on Goodie Life was done while Green was in Las Vegas for a residency, so he says it’s unlikely that his Voice co-stars will appear on the unscripted cable show. Green acknowledged that he'd like to continue with that show, too, particularly since he's yet to achieve his goal of finding a superstar: "I think the only thing that jades me just a bit about The Voice is that we have to discover... the next big thing."
He continued of the top-rated, NBC singing show, for which he'll sit out this spring: "I love the show... I'm human and I have other ambitions that will require my undivided attention... [but] yes, I will gladly go back [to Voice] if they'll have me."
