MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on Wednesday touted his musical accomplishments, noting that he has opened for Willie Nelson and Percy Sledge and twice for Grand Funk Railroad – and also noting his invites likely were because he was “the only sitting governor in America with a rock and roll band.”

Huckabee, a bass player whose band, Capital Offense, sometimes joins him on the campaign trail, said his political clout has opened doors not normally available to someone of his talents. He’s also hoping the music might win him some much-needed support.

“We’ve played everything from New York to California to Florida to Red Rocks Arena in Denver and a lot of cool venues. You’re probably getting impressed and saying, ‘You guys are pretty good.’ The fact is, if you’re the only sitting governor in America with a rock and roll band, you get invited to some things. You take what you can get,” said Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who plans to play the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, this month with a member of the band Boston.

The Surf Ballroom was the venue Buddy Holly, Ritche Valens and The Big Bopper played before a fatal plane crash in 1959, a fact not lost on Huckabee.

“I will not be flying out that night,” he said to laughter at a Manchester law firm.

Huckabee, who on Thursday planned to turn in his formal paperwork to get on the New Hampshire Republican primary ballot, returned to his message of bipartisan cooperation. He trails in most polls and has posted anemic fundraising tallies, but he hopes frustration with the status quo will help propel his candidacy.

“We have become so polarized that we’re political paralyzed,” Huckabee said, decrying inaction in Washington and divisiveness between Republicans and Democrats.

“Republicans aren’t right all the time. Democrats aren’t wrong all the time. … Whether it’s good politics or not, it’s how government ought to be working.”

Huckabee also took a shot at large government and President Bush.

“This administration has not been a friend to the 10th Amendment,” Huckabee said, referencing the part of the U.S. Constitution that prescribes states’ rights.

Huckabee also said health care and taxes have be reformed, a message he planned to repeat Wednesday night at a Divided We Fail forum. Huckabee also said innovation and energy independence are key to national security. Bold thinking, including a pledge to find a domestically produced energy source within two years, will be key to that goal.

“Why is every big idea unrealistic in this country?” Huckabee said, citing ending the Cold War, curing polio and racing into space. “It’s the big ideas that make this country great. … This country is not going to solve its problems if it’s going to wring its hands and say what it cannot do.”

AP-ES-10-17-07 1434EDT