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Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > May > 17
Saturday, May 17, 2008
5/17: Jon Peter Lewis interview, Taylor Hicks Broadway bound
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I got a nasty case of food poisoning Thursday and I was mostly down for the count Friday. So belatedly, here is a summary of my talk with Jon Peter Lewis at the Starbucks near DIsco Kroger, same place I met Jordin Sparks earlier this year. I figure I better get this out before Web traffic on this blog drops off big time post-finale!
Lewis, an eighth place finisher from season three, has spent the past four years in the post-“Idol” trenches, selling a few albums here and there, making appearances and doing concerts at colleges, clubs and private corporate events. He hasn’t done a wedding but he did do a girl’s bat mitzvah. In other words, he’s managed to leverage “Idol” to make a living as a musician. “I’m not working at McDonald’s,” he said.
He has a manager and an indie label backing him for his latest album coming out July 22 That’s more than what a lot of “Idol” alums have. And “Good Day Atlanta” was perfectly happy to have him on last Thursday to sing his new single “Break the Silence.”
“It’s not an easy path,” he later noted. “But I’m still here four years later. Take that for what it’s worth. I’ve got a new record. I feel like this is just the beginning.”
One thing he hasn’t liked doing much has been hosting “Idol” style competitions, a common request. “I’m pretty good at it but I prefer to sing,” he said. Through the years, he said he’s run into virtually every major “Idol” star, from Daughtry to Carrie. (The only winner he has missed is Taylor.) Back in 2004, a 13 year old Jordin Sparks, wearing a “JPL” T-shirt met him and gave him an indie CD she had worked on.
And he turned down a chance to go on NBC’s “Fear Factor,” which Anthony Fedorov and Carmen Rasmussen ultimately chose to do. “I just didn’t want to eat worms just to get TV time,” he said.
How about this for strange? He had been singing “Stand By Me” with a smidgen of Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls.” He said when he visited “Idol” the week Amanda Overmyer was eliminated, he said he ran into Jeff Archuleta, David’s dad, who said he had been following Jon Peter Lewis’ career for awhile. Perhaps Jeff was inspired by Jon Peter Lewis? Probably a stretch but check it out here, when he performed the song April 1, 2008 at Albright College in Reading, PA:
Here’s the video for his new single “Break the Silence” and honestly, it’s a pretty darn good song with top 40 potential:
His voice actually sounds much deeper and textured than I recall from season three. He said at the time had very little stage experience and wasn’t really clear in his mind what he wanted to do as an artist. And he admits what people remember the most is his goofy dancing. You can see he’s come a long way:
After “Idol,” he moved to Los Angeles and spent time learning how to write music. “I needed to learn a lot of that stuff, figure out what my sound was going to be,” he said. He experimented live with kitschy songs, rock songs, Americana songs. He settled on what he calls “mood pop,” kind of John Mayer-esque. “My range has gotten bigger,” he said, through practice.
His take on Diana DeGarmo at the time: “Back in the day, it was tough. No one was able to figure who she was artistically. But she had this incredible range and she’s tenacious.”
Not surprisingly, he’s rooting for David Cook to win though he thinks Archuleta’s fans may take him over the top for the crown.
In other “Idol” news:
-Yes, another one goes Broadway. This time, it’s Taylor Hicks, who will star in Grease next month as the “teen angel,” who sings “Beauty School Dropout.” I didn’t see that one coming! He’ll do it from June 6 to Sept. 7. More info here.
-“Idols live” tour tickets went on sale today. It looks like a few thousand have been sold already as of 2:40 p.m. Saturday. You can get them here..
-Oddsmakers still have David Cook favored to win.. I think Cook has broader appeal but you can’t count out the rabid Archuleta fans who will work double time to text message him to victory.
-Traffic is down on this blog by about a third year over year. Apparently, that’s not as bad as what’s happened on www.americanidol.com. Last March, 2007, the unique audience on that main “Idol” site was 7.27 million. This past March? Just 4.3 million. That’s a dropoff of 41 percent. Nielsen provided these stats and more. Nielsen ratings are only down about 10 percent.
