EXCLUSIVE: Actor Bill A. Jones (Rod Remington) Talks Glee

GleeK Guide had the pleasure of interviewing Bill A. Jones, the actor who portrays WOHN News 8 co-anchor Rod Remington on Glee. Jones shares his thoughts on co-stars Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester) and Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester), talks about his days in a Tennessee square dance band and delivers a special message for Glee fans.

GG: What was your most memorable moment while working on Glee

Jones: There are 2 or 3 that come to mind and almost all of them deal with working with Jane Lynch. The Mash-Up episode was particularly fun for me where my character, Rod Remington, becomes Jane’s love interest. It was a lot of fun. Everything about it was very enjoyable for me, especially the scene where Sue Sylvester discovers me in the arms of Andrea Carmichael, my co-anchor.

GG: What was it like working with Jane Lynch?

Jones: Jane is a remarkable actress and she epitomizes the best in a performer. She feeds from you and also feeds you. It’s a wonderful game of give and take in the best possible way. Much like playing a great match of tennis. If you’re playing with a better player, for some reason or another your game tends to improve, too. It’s a great deal of fun working with her on those things, and I’d love to see if the writers come up with a story line that lets Rod and Sue get back together again.

GG: That actually leads me to my next question! If Rod wanted to win Sue back, what would he do?

Jones: The short answer is he would do whatever is in the script, and the scripts have been uniformly great! Many of the lines didn’t make it past editing because we were running long on time, but they were simply brilliant. You have a little bit of regret that those didn’t see the light of day.

Rod in his own deluded mind is the only person in Lima, Ohio equal to Sue in status. He feels very comfortable with the possibility of giving her another shot.

GG: Do you know if you’ll be returning for season 2?

Jones: I do not... yet. I hope the writers will make their way back to Rod.

GG: You have the perfect newscaster voice. Is that a voice you’ve had since you were young or did it require practice?

Jones: I’ve developed my voice gradually over the course of many years. The character itself is something that I fall into very easily. I have been a broadcaster now for a very long time. I won’t say how many years! [laughs]

I worked in the Nashville market on camera before moving to Los Angeles 22 years ago. Since high school I have worked in radio as an on-air personality. That resonant voice is something that I’ve developed since the age of 16. Sometimes it’s a blessing and sometimes it’s a curse.

GG: People may not know that you’re a very good singer. How long have you been singing?

Jones: It’s funny, I sang back in Nashville when I did musical theater there, then I moved to Los Angeles and promptly stopped singing for about 15 years. I was busy becoming the next great actor. I’ll let you know how that turns out. [laughs]

My wife and I were on a cruise and they had the ubiquitous talent night, so I was emboldened enough to get up and do a number. It felt very, very good. After we came back to LA, one coincidence after another started happening. I’ve had the pleasure of touring Asia with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Singing has been a real joy and pleasure for me to do. Rediscovering my love for singing after taking a long break has been a Godsend.

GG: Your new album Frankly was just released earlier this month. How did you decide which songs to include?

Jones: It’s hard to go wrong going down the Frank Sinatra road. When I was working in radio in Nashville, I worked at a station that played great standards and have stayed very familiar with Sinatra’s body of work ever since then. It was a combination of wanting to do the great Sinatra tunes along with the fact that these songs are great standards that are always going to be around. I tend to resonate towards songs that are marvelous evergreens like that. It’s hard to go wrong with Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter and Cy Coleman.

GG: Where can we buy your album?

Jones: The CD is available from cdbaby.com. All the information will be there to either buy the physical CD or to download the album or portions of it. You can also download it from iTunes or Amazon.com.

GG: I read online that you play the bass guitar.

Jones: Oh wow, you’ve really done your research! I used to play electric bass guitar in a square dance band! Can you imagine? I first learned how to play 3 or 4 chords on the guitar, enough so that my mom would invest in the bass guitar that I really wanted to play. I started playing the bass guitar by ear; I don’t read music.

I used to have a square dance band called the Tennessee Traditions. I stopped singing with the square dance band when I was cast in a production of a show called Tintypes, which was music from around the turn of the 20th century. I’ve gone down the theater and acting road ever since. Tintypes is the show that stole me away from the square dance band, where I was making the princely sum of $25 a night.

GG: Now that we’ve learned that you sing and play the guitar, are you also a dancer? Could you take on Mr. Schuester [Matthew Morrison] in a dance off?

Jones: I don’t think anyone can take on Matt Morrison in a dance off! Did you see him on the Tonys?

GG: Oh yeah, he’s really good!

Jones: Matt is truly what you call a “triple threat.”

GG: I heard it’s a nickname people call Matt on the set.

Jones: Yeah, that is one of the nicknames because he’s a marvelous actor. He’s very available and vulnerable to you as an actor, he’s a marvelous dancer and he’s an amazing singer. Besides that, he’s just a swell guy in real life. So no one can touch Matt Morrison!

As to whether or not I dance, I was doing a show in Nashville called the 1940’s Radio Hour. The choreography was pretty simple. Basically they had the company marching in formation. While they were taping the show I had actually started marching off into left field by myself. The director took great glee in pointing this out during the cast party. Choreography doesn’t necessarily stick that well in my brain. I’m trying to get my body a little bit more limbered up in case I might need to do something.

GG: Are there upcoming projects you’d like to talk about?

Jones: Over the summer I’m doing some promotion work in connection with the CD, and I do a lot of voice over work from my home studio. I’ll also be performing with a big band during a Jazz Festival over Labor Day weekend.

I’ve just finished a Facebook fan page for Rod Remington. There are going to be some pictures and video of yours truly. I probably will put some video clips from other things I’ve done and gradually add to that.

Bill's special message to his fans

Jones: I’m very fortunate to be on an incredible show [Glee] and although I have no assurance that I’ll ever be back on the show again, I certainly do hope that I will be.

The one thing I did want to say is that the fans are just terrific. I fairly recently discovered Twitter and it’s a great way of interfacing with the fan base, which to my amazement, is truly international. I’m incredibly gratified by the support I’ve received from the fans and appreciate all of their encouragement and kind words. So I just want to say thank you for that.

GleeK Guide would like to give a big thank you to Bill for being so gracious with his time and answering all of our questions!

You may follow Bill on Twitter @billjonesactor

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