Rocker Todd Sarvies

P. Diddy decided to not make St. Louis rocker Todd Sarvies a star, instead choosing Liz Davis as the winner on MTV reality show “P. Diddy’s StarMaker” last month.

But don’t count Sarvies out.

After coming in second place on the music mogul’s latest show, Sarvies is announcing he has signed on with Johnny Wright’s management company, the Johnny Wright of New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, Justin Timberlake, and Britney Spears fame.

“He’s going to be repping me, and that’s exciting. If you look at the names on his roster, they’re huge names in the industry,” says Sarvies.

Sarvies will meet with the Orlando-based Wright in the near future to hash out details of their plans. “Johnny wants to make a good record. I’m gonna sit with him and pick out songs I’ve written over the years.”

Wright’s desire to represent Sarvies, known locally for his band John Boy’s Courage, doesn’t seem like a surprise. During the run of “P. Diddy’s StarMaker,” the world saw Sarvies has what it takes, win or lose.

Sarvies, the show’s sole rocker, proved to be a consistently strong player throughout the show, though he claims he didn’t think he’d go as far as the show’s finale.

“When I first got there and began listening to the other singers in the house, I thought let’s see if I can make it a couple of weeks and get my face on TV,” says a modest Sarvies.

“When I saw the R&B guys doing their runs and crazy things I said ‘I can’t do that.’ But I guess they saw something different in me,” says Sarvies, who thinks he was helped by stage experience he brought to the table performing at places such as Cicero’s.

“A lot of the other guys on the show hadn’t played to live audiences. They sang on street corners, or in the studio,” he says.

Still, “the level of talent was that exceptional, though whether that translated to the stage was the judges’ decision,” says Sarvies.

Sarvies sailed through much of the competition, which on some levels put a target on his back, he believes. By the time the week came when Diddy judged, he was taken aback that Diddy wasn’t such a fan.

“I was super confident going into that week. For him to say I hadn’t improved came as a shock. I thought I had improved. So that told me I had to reevaluate things and go back to the drawing board and focus on trying to bring the big performance,” he says.

“I think what Diddy saw was me standing behind the microphone playing guitar. He wanted me to get out of the box, and I did that in the coming weeks.”

Sarvies called appearing on the show, filmed October through December 2008, a wild ride, though a great one that allowed him to work with industry movers and shakers such as producer Rodney Jerkins and choreographer Laureann Gibson.

He learned a lot about being a performer and being on stage on the show.

“My experience had been in small clubs and coffee houses. Being on (the ‘StarMaker’) stage with the production and lights was a whole new world. The first time I was on that stage I felt like a deer in headlights. I didn’t know what I was doing,” says Sarvies, who also learned about working on his facial expressions while performing.

“One of our first exercises was looking into the mirror and seeing what we looked like when we sing. When I looked in the mirror, I saw I was kind of boring,” says Sarvies.

The show’s producers convinced Sarvies he needed to spruce up his image, leading to his displaying a new look of flat-ironed hair and eyeliner.

“The producers came up to me and said ‘the whole point is to see you become something, evolve from what you were.’ Basically they were saying Todd you sound good but you look like (crap).”

He was given $100 and sent to the same Hollywood hair stylist who cuts rocker Dave Navarro’s locks. “I get my hair cut in St. Louis for less than twenty bucks. I figured I’d got a $20 cut and pocket the change, but it cost $125.”

He wasn’t comfortable with the makeup, but “I understand the way it appears on stage is more eye-catching, and that it’s part of that rock star image.”

Now that the show is over, Sarvies is glad to be able to talk about it so openly. For a year, he was contracted to not spoil the show, not that he could if he wanted to. Different endings where filmed, so Sarvies didn’t know who really won until it aired.

“Everyone filmed an ending in which they won, so it was like ‘I won, maybe.’ ”

John Boy’s Courage performing with the Benji Davis Project and Andrew Hoover, 8 p.m. Wednesday, Cicero’s, $8, toddsarvies.com.

Click here to see a deleted scene from the finale of “P. Diddy’s StarMaker.”