Wednesday, July 26, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.
Who: L. D. Miller in "Buck Wild - A Country Variety Show"
When: 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday
Where: Sahara Theater
Tickets: $54.95 to $72.95
Information: 737-2515
Warning: The show is a topless revue.
L.D. Miller bounces around backstage at the Sahara showroom. He frolics with his miniature pinscher, Buddy, climbs to the roof to see the bright lights of Las Vegas and cuts up with the performers and crew. When the adults are gone, he plops down in a dressing room and plays "Motocross Mania 3" on an Xbox.
A typical 12-year-old.
Typical until young Larry Don Miller Jr. goes onstage with his harmonica and blows away the audience. All that soul, coming from a mere child.
L.D. is an emerging star. He landed his first endorsement deal at age 7 - just two years after picking up his first harmonica. He's played with Stevie Wonder and drawn praise for his rapid-fire licks from the master of that style, John Popper of Blues Traveler. L.D. knocked the socks off the judges at NBC's "America's Got Talent" reality show.
He seems destined for greatness. But for now, he is still a boy, a fact never far from his mind or those of his fellow performers. As amazing as L.D. is as a musician, his presence at the Sahara is even more remarkable given his co-stars: dancers in the topless revue "Buck Wild."
At an age when most boys are becoming acutely aware of the opposite sex, L.D. is surrounded by gorgeous, scantily clad women who bare their breasts onstage - but never in his presence.
The breasts aren't the whole show, of course. There is high-energy country music, dancing, corn pone humor a la "Hee-Haw" and specialty acts such as magician Nathan Burton.
There are a limited number of topless scenes.
And L.D. can't watch them, even though his hormones may be in a bit of a rage.
"My mom doesn't let me see any of the ladies," he says. "I wouldn't mind it, but "
An impish smile spreads across his round face as he leads a visitor around his backstage domain - a world of curtains, pulleys, props, backdrops, stairs and cubbyholes that serve as dressing rooms; his is located at the top of a stairway, but it is seldom used as he is too busy mixing with his friends and it is too far from the action.
In one narrow aisle there is a large bin on wheels filled with towels. If the pint-sized star is tired, he may stretch out in the container and relax. He demonstrates that he is still short enough to fit comfortably in the small space.
He also is still short enough that he can't see over a 6-foot curtain barrier behind stage. On the other side of the barrier the topless dancers are preparing for their next scene.
Vocalist T.J. Weaver stops L.D. and chats.
Weaver, who hosts "Buck Wild," met L.D. three years ago when they were performing in "Giddy-Up" in Atlantic City, a nontopless show similar to "Buck Wild."
"He was good then, but he's getting better," Weaver says. "He's more sure of himself onstage. Before, he was cute and unbelievable. Very talented. But now he's turning himself into an entertainer. He gets it."
Six nights a week, L.D. performs a short blues set to close each "Buck Wild" show. Audiences never fail to be amazed.
He has been amazing fans since he received his first harmonica in kindergarten. Now he has an arsenal of 50 harmonicas with different ones for different keys, flats and minors.
Tammy Miller says she knew her youngest son was special from the day he was born at home in Rochester, Ind. It was a family event: Larry Sr. delivered him; eldest brother, Clayton, cut the umbilical cord; and brother Cole wrapped him in a blanket. A midwife and two assistants stood by, just in case.
When the family moved to Lafayette, Ind., and started a janitorial business, the kids worked, vacuuming and emptying trash. They played together, too, usually camping. At night, they'd sit around the campfire and play music and sing.
"My husband grew up in the Pentecostal church, and he and his brothers formed a band. They played at all the youth rallies for the church," Tammy Miller says. "When we started our family, he jammed all the time with the boys."
Eventually the family band was good enough to turn professional. L.D. grew up watching his brothers perform at local festivals. When he was 5, his father bought him a harmonica.
"One day when L.D. got off the bus after kindergarten we watched him coming down the street just wailing on his harmonica," mom says. "He would listen to music and repeat it. In the evening he would stand on the coffee table and just play. He's never taken a lesson."
At 7, L.D. joined the family band and began performing around the country. David Saxe, who produces "Buck Wild" and other Las Vegas revues, saw a 9-year-old L.D. perform on television three years ago and hired him for "Giddy-Up."
"I hired him before I ever saw a live performance," Saxe says. Once he did, "the hair on my arms stood up."
Last year, as he began putting together "Buck Wild," he knew he wanted to bring the youth to Las Vegas, but he also knew it would not be easy to sell his parents on the idea of putting their baby in a topless show.
"I had to convince his mother that he wouldn't be near the topless girls," Saxe says.
Saxe understood her concern. He grew up in show business. His mother was in "Folies Bergere" at the Tropicana. At 5, he was helping his parents set up for shows; at 15, he was helping his sister's magic act; at 20, he produced his first topless show in Las Vegas.
"It wasn't a big deal for me," Saxe says. "I grew up around it. But it was a big hurdle for L.D.'s parents.
"The thing about L.D. is that he's an old soul. There's nothing young about that kid's spirit. He's incredible. I just knew he would be able to handle it. But it was a big leap of faith on the parents' part."
The Millers agreed to come - for six weeks. That was a year ago. Tammy and L.D. have been here since August, and Larry Sr. shuttles back and forth to Indiana, where he maintains the family's janitorial business.
They rented a home in Henderson, and L.D., who'll be a seventh grader in the fall, attends a Montessori school. Off for the summer, he spends his days swimming, playing ball, riding his dirt bike, going to movies, watching TV, listening to music. What he doesn't do is practice his music, he says, "unless it's for timing."
"He's an extraordinary young man," his mother says. "He's off the charts in school. He loves to study, especially vocabulary. He likes education. He knows it's necessary."
He wants to study music in college and then play in a band.
Although he lives in an adult world, his mother says he remains a child at heart.
"He loves to irritate the heck out of his brothers," Miller says.
It isn't a perfect world.
"We have met plenty of jerks along the way," she says. "He's been treated badly by some people with egos who cut him off, don't show him any respect. They think he's just a kid, and not really that good."
A person is immediately struck by how outgoing and happy L.D. is. While folks who sing and play the blues usually have lived the blues, if L.D. has suffered, it isn't visible.
At ease in a world that towers above him, the 5-foot-1 performer spends his time in the theater teasing the singers, dancers, comedians and musicians who constantly flow from the stage to the wings.
Tammy Miller says her son is well grounded.
"He loves to perform, so he has to have some sort of (ego) thing going in there," she says. "But we're a really down-to-earth family. We have always done real humble work and have always stressed to him that what he has is a gift and that he should never think he's better than anyone else."
His mother is always at his side - or nearby - when L.D. is wandering around the world of adult entertainers.
"He says he's kind of curious, but he would never feel comfortable seeing it," Tammy Miller says. "Inside, he's a 50-year-old man."
She doesn't believe he has seen anything he shouldn't, either accidentally or on purpose.
"I'm here every show and I know all the numbers - which ones are topless - and he knows the numbers as well. He knows where not to walk, what areas to avoid," she says.
"I'm not stupid. I protect him to the best of my ability, but I count on him to have some integrity in our conversations.
"I tell him, 'There are a lot of weirdos out there, and they get weird because they get into pornography and things and I just want you to be a normal person and have normal feelings and to protect that for yourself, even though you may have opportunities to see things.' "
She says her son looks at the showgirls as family. He occasionally joins the cast for bowling or dinner.
"He's like our little brother," says dancer Lacy Yoder, who stops in a narrow hall and gives him a sisterly hug. "I call him my boyfriend because he's so cute."
Yoder is thin, beautiful and about to return to the stage to take off her top. But the showgirls are careful around L.D.
"We watch our language," she says. And their exposure. "He's not difficult to be around. I trust him - besides, I know his parents."
"Buck Wild" ends its yearlong run at the Sahara on Saturday. The show will look for a new venue.
But L.D. and his mom will head back home to Indiana. Their flight leaves Aug. 2
He's got a busy schedule. The family band has some engagements booked at the end of August, and L.D. is booked to play with the Indianapolis Philharmonic between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
But mom doesn't rule out L.D. returning if he has a gig.
"He loves Las Vegas and doesn't want to go home," Miller says. "But I don't want to live here. My family is in Indiana."
"Buck Wild" producer Saxe says he hopes to work with L.D. again.
"The kid is gonna be big."
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