PNC park guard gets ‘15 seconds’ of fame

He played a janitor in a Super Bowl commercial with Ben Roethlisberger.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Al Turner can carry a tune with his silky smooth Barry White pipes, all right.

Just don’t ask him to — Pittsburgh’s newest celebrity is a little bashful.

Turner, 71, a Wilkinsburg resident and security guard at PNC Park, played a janitor opposite Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in an “American Idol” commercial that aired during the Super Bowl.

“Pure luck,” Turner said. “One guy came up and asked me, ‘Do you want to be in a commercial?’ I said, ‘Sure, who wouldn’t?’”

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was supposed to be in the commercial, said Turner’s boss, Chuck Neal, 54.

“Ben was supposed to be dreaming about being on ‘American Idol,’” Neal said. “I guess Tomlin was supposed to come back and get him and say, ‘Hey, snap out of it.’”

But Tomlin couldn’t make it.

“[The producers] liked Al’s voice,” Neal said. “The next thing I know, they said, ‘Can we borrow this guy?’”

It beat the alternative, which was checking visitor badges and making sure the Hollywood types didn’t wander into restricted areas during filming.

Turner won the role over a fellow PNC Park worker who actually is a janitor.

Turner wasn’t even supposed to be at PNC Park that day, which was sometime back in November, Neal said. But Neal asked Turner if he’d work overtime.

It turned into what Turner now calls “my 15 seconds of fame.”

Filming wrapped two days later.

Neither Turner nor Neal regularly watch “Idol,” but the PNC Park security crew knows music, Neal said.

“That’s part of the requirement around here,” he said. “You at least have to be able to tell a joke once a while, and everyone around here sings once a while.”

Even Turner?

“He’s not bad,” Neal said. “‘American Idol,’ I don’t know. But Al does know a few tunes from back in the day.”