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Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > December > 16
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
12/16: David Cook interview and video performance at the Q100 Christmas concert
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I spoke briefly with David Cook before the Q100 “Miracle on West Peachtree Street” Christmas concert Monday night. He was not wearing any makeup and had no bags under his eyes despite the whirlwind of the past few months. He actually looked relaxed and happy.
But first, here’s a video I took of Cook from the concert where his brother Andrew dressed up as Santa and presented him with a birthday cake before he performed “Bar-Ba-Sol.” Cook turns 26 on Dec. 20. My camera took a few seconds to focus.
I asked him about how he felt his single and album were doing. “Knock on wood, so far, so good,” he said. Both are “still making forward progress. If everything holds up, we can hit gold [500,000 albums sold] this week.”
“Do you think ‘Light On’ can beat Archuleta’s ‘Crush’?” I asked.
“I don’t know! That song is a juggernaut. If I can get even close, I’ll be happy.” [“Crush” peaked at about 15 on the radio pop chart. Not quite a juggernaut but a solid opener for the Arch.]
I asked what he was up to next week. ‘I’m going to be off the grid for two weeks until New Year’s. This is my last gig until the Mirage [in Vegas.] This will give me a chance to reflect on the last year, try to feel normal.”
“How come you don’t look tired at all?” I asked. “You have no bags under your eyes!”
“I have a band full of friends and a bunch of amazing people that make this a whole lot easier,” he said.
“How did you manage to get two weeks off? Wouldn’t the label want you to work nonstop, even through Christmas?”
“Back in June, I fought, I begged and pleaded and screamed. It worked!”
“You’re battling David Archuleta on the VH1 video countdown. I saw he was No. 1 last week and you were No. 2.”
“We’ve been going back and forth. I think it’s just a testament to our fan bases. My video debuted at No. 1, went back, then 1, now 2.”
And he noted that he’s grateful. “Second place is a lot higher than I was charting before ‘Idol’!”
“So are you at all tired of talking about ‘Idol’?”
“In all honesty, ‘Idol’ is my meal ticket. I busted my chops for 10 years. ‘Idol’ gave me the platform to make people listen. I owe ‘Idol’ quite a bit.”
“What are you going to do in the new year?”
“We’re going to hit the road. It’s going to be an all-college tour in the spring. I remember I have an older brother’s Indiana State college yearbook, Larry Bird’s senior year. It had all these pages of concerts like Elvis Costello. You look at the current landscape of acts. Not a lot do college campuses. I want to bring it to the people who don’t get a lot of entertainment amid all the textbooks and make it fun.”
Summer, he noted, is still wide open. “If anybody is interested, call me!”
He’s still not sure of a second single. “We still want to give ‘Light On’ room to breath,” he said.
“A friend of mine wanted to know about the eyeliner. Why so much?”
“The eyeliner is more out of necessity. I’m a pale man of Irish, English and German descent. Anything to make the eyes pop amid stage lights! It stands ot reason. I just don’t want to go nuts. I went nuts on tour a little bit. I’ll scale back.”
“You missed your friend Michael Johns by a couple of days. Do you miss the ‘Mavid’ dancing?”
“I will tell you. We never did any serious dancing on the tour. Mike and I had fun with the ‘Mavid’ thing. But the show was basically stage blocking. We should never consider that dancing.”
“No dancing tonight, right?”
“A little rock star preening and holding on to the mike stand for dear life!” [Would you consider what he’s doing below preening? :) )
-Thank you MJ for linking to my Michael Johns video. And since I had so little time yesterday, I didn’t post a good summary of what Ken Warwick said during the press conference and with other media.
here is what MJ consolidated very well.
In summary of the summary, we’ll be seeing a bit more backstage shenanigans, which i think could be fun. Giving the judges full power to pick three of the top 12 is a bit problematic to me but perhaps some good contestants overlooked by the voters might get through.
The theme for the semifinals will be top 10 songs from the 1950s to today. Pretty broad, which is good. He also said Motown’s 50th anniversary means a Motown for sure. He also wants younger guest mentors.
He also said he knew nothing about Paula Goodspeed’s issues, repeating Nigel Lythgoe. Paula Abdul’s job is safe, he noted. He told EW that he added a fourth judge to take some power away from Simon Cowell. The two ladies will occasionally gang up on him, he said.
