42 | OutBoise Magazine | NEWS
OutBoise.com | Issue 10.1 | August 2015
It should happen.
You have to carry the flag! (Laughs)
Right?! Isn’t that what we’ve been saying since the
beginning of your career?
It’s definitely been interesting. Really interesting. When
I see that there can be a ripple effect of positivity and
change and helping people just because I identify as one
thing or another, and I’m OK to talk about it, that’s amazing. It’s amazing that it takes that little to make that much
of an impact.
American Idol wraps next year. In your opinion, what
happened to the show? Why haven’t we seen another
Kelly or Carrie or Adam in recent years?
I’m not totally sure about that, but I do know that when
the show first started it was a time in America when we
needed something like that. I mean, 9/11 had just happened, so our country was looking for something to believe in. Not that American Idol healed us over 9/11 by itself,
but it definitely reflected what we wanted from our entertainment at the time. It gave people hope that, hey, you
can be from anywhere and you can have this dream and it
can come true, and it was really positive in that regard.
It also came at a time when the music industry was really
suffering. I mean, we had all the pirating that was going
on; all of a sudden the Internet had taken the rug out from
underneath the record companies, and they were looking
for an answer. All of a sudden we’re giving so much power
to the people. That was really impressive, because up until
that point the labels really held the strings and decided
what the public was going to consume.
Mariah Carey recently called American Idol “fake” and
had some pointed words for the show. As a former contestant on the show, how did you feel about what she
said? Did American Idol ever feel “fake” to you?
It’s a TV show. I didn’t feel like it was fake at all. I knew
what the concept was. Personally, if you’re blindsided by
what American Idol is, then you weren’t paying attention.
It’s not that difficult to know what you’re getting yourself
into. That’s why I auditioned; I knew what I was getting
myself into.
Essentially, it’s a strategy for a contestant. It is about
talent and it is about being a good performer, but you also
have to put some thought into the songs you’re picking. I
put some thought into it, and that’s partially why I think I
did well. Picking a genre, picking songs that work for you,
picking songs where you won’t be compared. For me, I
was picking songs that are more obscure or doing them a
different way.
You were crafty about it.
I’m crafty, yeah! I try to be crafty. (Laughs) And I think for
the judges it’s a different game than it is for the contestants, obviously, and things shifted a bit when the show
wanted to focus on the judges more than the contestants.