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Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > September > 23
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
9/24: Clay Aiken finally comes out of the closet, new David Cook single “Light On” out now
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
People magazine has broken the story: Clay Aiken has come out of the closet.
“It was the first decision I made as a father,” Aiken, 29, tells the upcoming issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. “I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things. I wasn’t raised that way, and I’m not going to raise a child to do that.”
Aiken made almost an apology to his fans, as if they didn’t know.
He hopes his fans “know that I’ve never intended to lie to anybody at all. … But if they leave, I don’t want them to leave hating me.”
We’ve all known for years he’s gay but for reasons but he had refused to acknowledge it until now. I always figured it was a combination of guilt and upbringing as a born-again Christian that held him back. Deirdre, a regular blogger, argues that this is his private decision to announce his sexuality and that’s true. But there was so much unnecessary speculation and jokes, all that would have disappeared if he had simply said so in the first place. Just sayin’.
He’s only the third “American Idol” contestant that I can recall to openly acknowledge he’s gay. The others are season one contestants Jim Verraros, who has starred in a couple of gay films and former Cumming resident R.J. Helton. Nobody has ever done so during the show (though Danny Noriega didn’t need to.)
The season two runner up recently had a child with a friend of his through artificial insemination, Jaymes Foster.
Extra got a sarcastic comment from Simon Cowell in reaction to this revelation:
“Wow. That’s a shock. It’s like being told Santa Clause isn’t real. Unbelievable.”
—David Cook has released his first single on www.popeater.com.
The single has a ’70s rock vibe in the first verse but has a melodic modern chorus. It sounds more upbeat than most of the Daughtry songs and a more optimistic feel than most Nickelback songs. Based on one listen, I can see this being an instant top 10 song on top 40 radio. Among a very selective group of people on a poll posted on the page, 78% love it, 12% like it, 10% hate it. I’m not sure how long it’s been up today but at 9:30 a.m., it already has 60,000 votes! (By the way, we’ll be switching to wordpress before the start of season eight, which should be better for all of us.)
More info at David’s web site.](http://www.davidcookofficial.com/news/“light-on”-is-released-to-radio-this-week-and-will-premiere-exclusively-on-aol-music-on-wednesd).
“Light On” was co-written by one of rock music’s most influential innovators, Chris Cornell, lead singer and songwriter for Soundgarden and Audioslave, and acclaimed producer / songwriter Brian Howes, who has worked with superstar rock bands such as Hinder and Puddle of Mudd. Cook has been busy in the studio with Cavallo, co-writing many of the upcoming album’s tracks alongside some of music’s hottest rock songwriters.
-I’ll be at the Kellie Pickler concert tonight at the North Georgia State Fair. I have backstage passes if anybody wants to meet me at will call at 7:45 p.m.
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