American Idol

by Richard Rushfield

  Natural-born businesswoman and almost-law-student Kimberley Locke remembers her sense of the ticking clock while she was on that year’s tour and her race to get ahead of it. “My goal was to have a record deal by the time the tour ended in September. I was hounding 19 management. I called them every day. ‘Are you going to sign me?’ because time was wasting. I knew that I didn’t want to come off the tour and not have something lined up. Between my lawyer and a few other people who were making phone calls on my behalf, Curb Records was interested. Mike Curb met me in Memphis and signed me in Memphis at the concert.

  “My thing was that I realized that the window of opportunity was closing because American Idol was at the height of its run, and I knew that as soon as they started picking the next season of contestants, people were going to get ADD and they were going to forget because they wanted to see who the next crew was coming in. As soon as I came off the tour I went right into the studio. If they weren’t going to sign me, I needed to be on top of my game, because what people don’t understand is if they don’t sign you, they’re done with you. They don’t hold your hand. They don’t help you. You’re no longer their client, which is fair. That’s how it is. That’s business.”

  For many former Idols, however, the expectations would prove debilitating. Their enormous year of Idol is followed for many by a difficult process of figuring out where they fit in the challenging landscape of the music business and trying to put together a team to get them there. It can take years. Season 6 favorite Melinda Doolittle, who waited two full years to put out an album after her Idol stint, said, “I think that was probably the best part about not winning for me was that I just needed some time to figure out what I wanted to do. I love so many different styles of music. I wanted to see what resonated deep inside me, though, what I wanted to sing and what kind of music I wanted to tell a story with, what kind of vehicle I wanted to use. I did a lot of traveling. I was singing as much as possible. I was out there working, whether it was a corporate date or concerts here and there. I toured twice with Michael W. Smith. I did two Christmas tours with him. I went to Africa twice on behalf of Malaria No More. Once with Mrs. Bush and then once as a presidential delegate, which I never thought I’d get the chance to do. There were a lot of people telling me to hurry. Thank God for my mom and for prayer. I knew that I needed time.”

  But for many, having experienced that moment of stardom, the expectation that it will continue unabated becomes crippling. Season 6’s Phil Stacey went from Idol to building an audience for live performances, playing on a circuit across the South. He reflected, “I think the biggest challenge is that a lot of the contestants come off the show and think it’s over if they don’t get a record deal. They think it’s all about the record deal. I came off the show understanding that that wasn’t it, that the record deal was actually going to be harder to obtain because I was on American Idol. There are already so many people from American Idol who have become stars. But even though the record label doors seem closed—the event gigs, the venues, you can go just about anywhere. When you have come off American Idol people will always want to see you.”

  Nine seasons in, the road out of Idol has led in more directions than anyone could have dreamed. At the top there are, of course, the three Cs, and one K: Carrie, Chris, Clay, and Kelly, who between them have sold over 33 million albums. A decade after her victory, Clarkson remains one of the most beloved and talked about figures in pop music. Carrie Underwood is the uncrowned reigning queen of country music, selling albums by the millions, filling arenas on her tour, and taking home every award Nashville has to offer. After that group, another handful has managed to chalk up impressive sales for post-Idol albums, with Bo Bice, David Archuleta, and Adam Lambert among others earning gold records and putting out hit singles.

  The woes of the music industry have, however, taken their toll on Idol alum. Since season 5, no winner’s debut album has achieved the massive heights of those early efforts. The albums of Jordin Sparks, David Cook, and Kris Allen, while producing hit singles, struggled to cross into platinum status. Nevertheless, there remains a myriad of opportunities for Idol alumni outside of the traditional pop/rock charts. Following Carrie Underwood into Nashville, Kellie Pickler, Bucky Covington, and Joshua Gracin, among others, have carved out careers in the country world.

  Season 6’s Chris Sligh, who is pursuing a career in Christian music, made a name for himself as a songwriter, penning the Rascal Flatts hit “Here Comes Goodbye.” The Christian music world has embraced a range of Idol stars, from Phil Stacey to Mandisa. RJ Helton has kept working in music continuously since leaving season 1 in one of the most interesting crossover careers, performing both as a gospel star and in gay-themed settings, such as regular work on cruises. Carly Smithson went in a decidedly more hard rock direction, becoming the singer and front woman for We Are The Fallen, a band composed of the original members of Evanescence.

  The Asian market, where American Idol is watched, if anything, more religiously than it is here, has opened its arms to scores of alumni who have recorded songs and toured, particularly in Japan and the Philippines. Season 3’s Jasmine Trias, who relocated her career across the Pacific, remains a major star there.

  The birth of iTunes has also opened up opportunities for former Idols to pursue their own careers and capitalize on their notoriety. Since beginning a partnership with iTunes in season 7, Idol has sold more than 120 million songs on the online music service. But for many alumni, that online fan base has proved an ongoing source of sustenance, as they are able regularly to put up songs and albums for download. Recording Christmas songs released alone has become a popular route for many.

  Then there’s Broadway. Season 3 champion Fantasia Barrino most notably headed up the original cast of The Color Purple, the musical. In 2009, Constantine Maroulis was nominated for a Tony award for his role in Rock of Ages. Season 5 champion Taylor Hicks spent a year with the touring company of Grease in the Teen Angel role. Ace Young and Diana DeGarmo headed the cast of a Hair revival. In 2010, Justin Guarini appeared in the original Broadway cast of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. And the list goes on.

  Acting has also called out to many former Idols. Most famously, after a few fallow years following her disappointing Idol run, Jennifer Hudson won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Dreamgirls. Katharine McPhee has acted consistently since leaving Idol, taking supporting roles in The House Bunny and the NBC sitcom Community, among other parts. Tamyra Gray went on to a role in Boston Legal after leaving Idol.

  Their ease with the camera has led to careers in TV hosting for many Idols. Justin Guarini has become the face of the Idol-affiliated shows Idol Tonight and Idol Chat, helming the TV Guide Network’s programming about Idol. A dozen other former Idols have also found work in front of the camera in Idol-related shows. Ryan Seacrest’s almost cohost, season 1 contender Kristin Holt, can now be seen as a correspondent on nerd central G4 network. Kimberly Caldwell headed up P. Diddy’s Starmaker show on MTV in 2009. Season 7’s Kristy Lee Cook hosts a Nashville-themed show, Goin’ Country, on the Versus network, described as “hunting with the stars.” Alexis Grace found work immediately after Idol as a DJ on a station in her hometown of Memphis. Jon Peter Lewis hosts his own online variety show, The American Nobody Show, a hilarious romp through Idol land built around the misadventures of a singer who, seven years after Idol, is still searching to find his place in the industry.

  Not everyone’s road has been smooth. Every few months seem to bring news of another Idol alum’s brush with the law and infamy. In 2007, season 4’s Jessica Sierra was arrested for assault and cocaine possession. She was later the subject of a sex tape released online. Julia DeMato from season 2 was arrested in 2005 for drunk driving and cocaine possession. Season 7’s Chikezie Eze was nabbed for identity theft and using a stolen credit card at a Neiman Marcus store in 2010. Season 6’s Stephanie Edwards was sentenced to community service for public brawling.


  And then there has been the journey of Nikki McKibbin.

  As a member not just of the first cast of American Idol, but of Popstars before it, Nikki could be considered one of the founding mothers of the modern media age. She’s certainly plumbed its depths since leaving it. Initially signed by 19 after the Idol tour, she eventually stormed out and away from the firm. By her account, she was pressed to record a country album rather than sticking with the hard rock format she felt at home with. With no contract in the offing, Nikki returned to Dallas, where she put together a band and began playing local dates before they eventually broke up. During this period, her alcohol abuse, still relatively mild during her Idol stint, began to rage out of control. After the death of her mother, she turned to cocaine and other hard drugs.

  Nikki began making the rounds of reality TV as a former Idol star, appearing on Fear Factor and Battle of the Network Reality Stars. When she finally recorded an album in 2007, six years after her Idol stint, it failed to take off. Her cycle of depression and drug abuse worsened until in 2008 she was hospitalized and placed in a psychiatric ward. The publicity from that episode brought a call from the team of Dr. Drew Pinsky, who invited her to join the season of Celebrity Rehab just about to film. Viewers saw Nikki open up about her childhood history of abuse—“I’ll tell people anything. I don’t care”—and go through a tortured withdrawal from anxiety medication. She eventually graduated to Dr. Drew’s other show, Sober House, where she completed the recovery program under the watchful eye of America.

  In 2010, she celebrated two years clean and sober, and credits Dr. Drew with saving her life. Married to Craig Sadler, the CTO of a tech company, she lives with him in a Fort Worth subdevelopment, where the pair are raising Nikki’s son, seen on television as a four-year-old bringing his mother flowers on the Idol stage, and Craig’s daughter from a previous relationship.

  In the low-key subdivision, the gargoyles that greet visitors on the front steps are the only visible sign of the rocker dwelling within. On the weekends, Nikki works at a memorabilia store, where, she says, customers often point out her resemblance to the young redhead on the Idol poster hanging on the wall. But they generally refuse to believe it’s her. “I’ve had a job since I came home from Sober House because they tell you you need to have a normal job,” she says. “Everybody’s gotta work. It doesn’t matter if I was on a TV show or what. I come home, I gotta work. That’s just the way it is. But it’s hard to find a job because everybody looks at you, like, why do you want to work here? You’re famous.”

  In the evenings, she’s still singing with the band, this time an ensemble dubbed Wicked Attraction that performs hard rock classics, as well as original songs by Nikki dealing with her recovery and path back. The crowds that turn out for them at local bars and clubs number into the hundreds.

  On a hot April night at a bar in Grand Prairie, Wicked Attraction played an unadvertised show at a local bar and grill for a handful of friends. More a rehearsal for their bigger dates than an actual gig, Nikki, in black leather boots, red fishnet stockings, and sequined miniskirt, took time-outs between songs to play the bar’s slot machines. After a set, she tells about trying out to sing with the cast at Six Flags. “I love Six Flags. It’s always been my dream. Hey, if I can sing and get paid fifteen dollars an hour, why not?” She talks about the plans to record an album but says, “It’s hard to get gigs because people think we’re going to charge five thousand dollars a show because I’m the front man, but I have to tell people, it’s fine. I’ll work for what a band works for.”

  A decade after the karaoke hostess used her bingo winnings to fund her trip to Hollywood Week, the dream still burns every bit as bright. Idol may not, according to the textbook, have gone for Nikki, but it is part of her journey to what is today a place where at last, after the hype and the infamy and the drugs, it’s all about the music.

  Chapter 20

  THE END OF THE DAY

  For over five years, Simon Cowell had dreamed of being free of Idol and bringing his own show to America. But now that his chance at freedom was at hand, the leap was proving harder than he had imagined. Season 8 had been a watershed for Cowell, a time of very public contemplation as to what his next move would be. Now, entering the final season on his contract, he was being pressed for answers.

  In interviews, Cowell had been fairly open about having lost his enthusiasm for Idol and wanting to tie his future to his own show, X Factor. But the money on the table was staggering. This wasn’t some artiste turning his back on filthy lucre for the sake of artistic fulfillment. This was the man who proclaimed his goal in life was to make a lot of money. If he said no, Simon Cowell would potentially be the first man in entertainment history to walk away from a contract worth over a hundred million dollars a year.

  There’s a Hollywood urban legend that could serve as something of a metaphor for the situation. Jack Nicholson, the story goes, is in the back of a limousine having a meeting with a couple of executives. At some point during the meeting, Nicholson more or less throws himself on the female executive. She slaps his face and storms out of the car, slamming the door in disgust. The other executive—male—says to him, “Jack, how could you do that?” “Lemme tell you something about women,” Jack drawls in reply. “There’s two kinds of them in the world: the kind who want to screw Jack Nicholson, and the kind who want to say they turned down a chance to screw Jack Nicholson.”

  Simon Cowell, of all people, was going to turn down the chance.

  And no one was more shocked than he was to find out that, years later—several empires later—it no longer was just about the money. Looking back on his earlier vow that getting rich was the be-all and end-all, Cowell says, “That’s the time you find out that’s who you really are, I guess. I used to say, It’s about the money, and that’s what used to drive me. Suddenly, when you’re in that position, loyalty comes into it, all sorts of emotions. And funny enough . . . even if the X Factor didn’t succeed, I’d still say I made the right decision because it was what I wanted to do.”

  The offer was so overwhelming Cowell initially said yes. But he just couldn’t do it. The desire to be the man with the name on the door was too great. After eight seasons of Idol, Cowell was done. It was time to move on.

  January 11, 2010 was the first day of shooting season 9’s Hollywood Week. It was also Fox’s turn to present its lineup at the Television Critics Association meeting in Pasadena. All morning, there had been buzz that something big might happen. Since the Will Simon Go? question had been the biggest story in entertainment for months, the assembled press corps wondered if this might be the day of the announcement.

  Fox had thrown down the gauntlet.

  In the past few days, Cowell had said he would return to Idol, then changed his mind and said he would leave. With hints that he was about to change his mind again, the exhausted executives had ordered a contract drawn up and brought to Pasadena, where they told Cowell it was time—once and for all—to sign on the dotted line. And not just sign, but sign before an assembly of press critics, with dozens of cameras rolling and the world’s entertainment media observing it all. The room filled with Idol’s producers, crew, and even family members who had made the trip to Pasadena for the occasion.

  A little after noon, as the assembled media gazed on, a visibly shaken Cowell took the podium. Voice quiet—almost humble—he announced: “There’s been a lot of speculation, partly because we didn’t have a contract agreement. We reached an agreement formally about half past eleven this morning. Where we have come to is that X Factor will launch in America in 2011, with me judging the show and executive producing the show, and because of that, this will be my last season on American Idol.”

  He went on, “I was offered a lot of money to stay on. But . . . I wanted to do something different. I wanted a new challenge.”

  It was, everyone knew, inevitable.

  The moment had been five years in the making. Now that the day was here, the sense of what h
ad been accomplished since this little singing contest had crossed the Atlantic was heavy in the air. Fox might not have been saying good-bye to Cowell, just moving him to another corner of the empire, but the show that had made the network was about to lose the star who had built it. It was the end of something enormous.

  For those who were staying with Idol, the big question was what would come next, what Idol would be without Cowell. No doubt many of the rank-and-file crew thought of moving from Idol—an aging giant that had just received its biggest blow yet—to what would undoubtedly be the hotter, fresher production. But before all that there was still a show to put on. Simon Cowell had one more season to go.

  Season 9 saw another enormous tweak to the production. This one, anticipating Cowell’s decision, had been made months ahead. In those first seasons of Idol Paula provided the “heart” of the show, the sense that the kids had someone rooting for them no matter what. With Paula gone, there was a hole in the lineup, and it was clear that Kara wasn’t going to fill it. Privately, members of the Idol team acknowledged that the audience research on the newest judge was not stellar. “She’s the one who broke up the Beatles,” said one.

  Ellen DeGeneres was a logical replacement choice for many reasons. In the previous decade, she had transformed herself from a slightly caustic boundary-pushing comedian to a fun-loving, dancin’-all-the-time daytime talk show host. In that role, she had been one of American Idol’s best friends, a devoted fan who for years would host contestants on her show. She had served two years prior as the remote location host of Idol Gives Back and thrown outdoor concerts featuring Idol alumni. So, when the year before she had appeared as a celebrity guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance, a lightbulb had gone off in Mike Darnell’s head. Here was a star who was funny, supportive, and beloved. What’s more, she had the clout to stand up to Cowell.