Open Barr

Friday, May 14, 2004 | 4:32 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

May 15 - 16, 2004

John Barr. You either love him or hate him.

There is that chafing "sell-you-a-car" ditty played during the campy Findlay Toyota commercials. And there are his infamous theatrics: Barr taking on the Asian warlord, Barr as a wannabe biker and Barr with Bitty Barr.

But Barr is a pretty nice guy. A former "arena rocker" who has sung his way across the Atlantic and back, his life stories are as wacky as his commercials. And he's got plenty of tales to tell.

There was the time when he hooked up with a keyboard player, who had a friend, who knew a girl who dated a "big wig" in the entertainment business who could maybe support the band.

Three weeks later, the band arrangements fell through and Barr was in Los Angeles in a rented Cadillac, hired to follow the big wig's girl around to see what she was up to.

"Suddenly I'm 'Spenser: for Hire,' Barr, 45, said at Findlay Toyota last week, where his blue polo shirt and khaki shorts looked nothing like the leather gear he wore in his biker commercial.

"And my music is put on hold."

Last week Barr, Findlay Toyota's general sales manager, sat down with the Las Vegas Sun to answer a few questions for anyone who ever wondered, "Who is this guy, anyway?"

Las Vegas Sun: Do you ever just shake your head when one of your commercials come on?

John Barr: You're always your own biggest critic aren't ya? And there's definitely some moments when you go, "Whoa!"

Sun: Where are you from originally?

JB: Fareham. It's a suburb to a city called Portsmouth. Portsmouth is pretty much the naval capital of England, of Great Britain, mentioned recently in "Master and Commander," as you know.

Sun: (Pause.)

JB: Russell Crowe, ya know. As an Englishman you have to see that movie.

Sun: So you grew up there?

JB: I was born there, grew up there. I moved to London in the early '80s, through the music business, after I finished up school.

Sun: Serious musician?

JB: Yes. I did a lot of touring in Europe in the early '80s with a lot of the big rock bands. I opened for the Scorpions and for a band called UFO. I did some festivals with Whitesnake and U2.

We were an up-and-coming Britishlike rock band called Chinatown. Then I got an offer to come to the U.S.A. in August of 1983.

Sun: What happened then?

JB: I flew to El Paso after I had been in L.A. for about four or five months. I got the first taste of what the American Dream is.

Sun: Yeah?

JB: When I arrived in El Paso I had a red-leather suit on with a red-leather tie and I walk into this airport. I meet these girls. One of them had seen me in London playing and she had like 15, 20 of her girlfriends with her.

We went out to their cars and everyone's getting into Trans Ams and Corvettes and I'm thinking, "This has got to be the American dream." For the next six months all I did was party. It was a wonderful time.

I formed a band there called Tokyo Rose and we went out with Ratt on the "Round and Round" tour.

Sun: You traveled back and forth to Europe. You said that at some point you wound up in Roswell, then Albuquerque, before returning to L.A. Whatever happened to your brief "detective" gig?

JB: In the end it all blows up and we come back to Vegas. I'm stranded in Vegas in 1990.

Sun: Did you stay?

JB: I hitchhiked to L.A. with $20. Then, I've got to make money, so I'm talkin' to some people and someone says to me, "Ya know what? There's an English guy who runs this Toyota store in North Hollywood. Why don't you give him a call?"

Suddenly I'm selling cars in L.A. and my first month I sell like 30 cars. It's easy. I just talk to people, tell them my life story. They feel sorry for me and buy a car.

Now I've got the money, all the guys come out to L.A. for the band, all my friends from Florida and Chicago. We went on tour with a band called Queensryche.

At the end of the tour I go to sell my Jaguar and pay my bills, I'm broke. I say to myself, "There's got to be a lesson here. I play music, I'm broke. I sell cars, I can make a little money."

Sun: How did the commercials begin?

JB: The brainchild was Richard Abajian. Rich got me in front of a camera based on the fact of me having rock 'n' roll hair and an accent.

One day we were driving and talking about James Bond, "The Man With the Golden Gun" (and) the Asian warlord.

We talked about that song "Kung Fu Fighting" (and how) everybody's high-priced fighting and we call the bad guy "Evil High Price." The whole idea was to make it fun, kind of like James Bond meets Austin Powers.

Then we asked ourselves, "What's popular?" Well, all this WWF wrestling. We'll get a guy that looks like a wrestler. We'll call him No-Chance Finance and then we thought we gotta do a woman so we did the Eva Spendalot (commercial).

Sun: Is there anything you won't do in a commercial?

JB: There's nothing I won't do to sell a car. In fact, tomorrow I'm doing a commercial with Jim Plunkett, who was a quarterback for the Raiders. I don't know the format, but it's going to be, "Anything to sell you a car."

Sun: You don't know what you're walking into?

JB: No idea. None. I don't ever get any prior warning.

Sun: Will we ever see John Barr "Rock Star" wants to sell you a car?

JB: We've talked about that.

Sun: Do you know Glenn Lerner?

JB: Yes, I know Glenn pretty well. I know Adam Kutner. I met him at the Cinco de Mayo festival two years ago ... The Courtesy Girl! Sheryl. I met her in a line Christmas Day to see "Peter Pan," the movie.

Sun: Speaking of television commercial personalities, do you remember Fred from GMF Motors?

JB: (In Fred's accent) I finance you, too.

Sun: You should do a spoof on Fred.

JB: That would be good. Or I could go on with a head thing on with a lollipop (Furniture Barn).

Sun: Do you get any grief for your commercials?

JB: Most people are very nice, because they understand its purely humor. Every now and again I'll get someone who says, "John Barr, I think your commercials are stupid." I'll say, "Well that's fine, but you remembered them."