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I Smell Pop Culture: Clay Aiken · I Am All In with Scott Patterson

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Speaker 1: I am all in again.
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Speaker 2: Oh, I guess you.
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Speaker 1: I Smell Pop Culture with Easton Allen and iHeart radio podcast.
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Speaker 2: Oh.
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Speaker 1: I love the smell of pop culture in the morning.
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Speaker 1: That's right, it's Easton Allen. I am your host today
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Speaker 1: on I Smell Pop Culture. Scott Patterson has given me
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Speaker 1: the code to this podcast. I have taken over the
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Speaker 1: feed for this one day, this short little period of time.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for downloading this episode. Thank you for not
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Speaker 1: deleting this MP three. I really need this, everybody. I
0:44
Speaker 1: need this so bad. Here's what we do on I
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Speaker 1: Smell Pop Culture. We love Gilmore Girls, right, we love it.
0:49
Speaker 1: We love Gilmore Girls. We want to live in stars Hollow.
0:52
Speaker 1: The cool thing about Gilmore Girls is that they exist
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Speaker 1: within the same universe as us. It's so funny, it's
1:00
Speaker 1: so crazy. Every episode is just loaded floor to ceiling
1:04
Speaker 1: with pop culture references from the real world. It's such
1:08
Speaker 1: a cool thing. And so what we're going to do
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Speaker 1: here on this podcast, We're going to take those moments.
1:13
Speaker 1: We are going to distill them. We're going to boil
1:15
Speaker 1: them down so that it's a gelatinous paste, and we
1:18
Speaker 1: are going to put it on under a microscope. And
1:20
Speaker 1: look at what makes this pop culture moment, what makes
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Speaker 1: this reference? What are the atoms that build up these references?
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Speaker 1: And who are the people that made them real? Who
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Speaker 1: are the people behind them, the ones that wrote the songs,
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Speaker 1: the ones that are in the movies, the ones that
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Speaker 1: wrote the books. We're going to talk to them all
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Speaker 1: here on Imo pop Culture and this week, oh man,
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Speaker 1: we are going back to a show that defined pop
1:45
Speaker 1: culture for an entire generation. If you ask me American Idol,
1:50
Speaker 1: do you know American Idol? I am acutely aware of
1:53
Speaker 1: American Idol. I work with Ryan Seacrest on a daily
1:55
Speaker 1: basis here in Los Angeles, and if he is listening,
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Speaker 1: American Idols my favorite show that has ever existed. I
2:01
Speaker 1: love American Idol. I would die for American Idol. But
2:05
Speaker 1: here's the thing. In the world of Gilmore Girls, which
2:07
Speaker 1: we have established exists in the same universe as us,
2:11
Speaker 1: there's a character who is not that big of an
2:13
Speaker 1: American Idol fan, our friend Lane Kim. She does not
2:17
Speaker 1: appreciate the musical stylings of our friends on American Idol.
2:21
Speaker 1: And if you want to follow along with me here,
2:24
Speaker 1: we're going to season four, episode eighteen Tick tick boom.
2:28
Speaker 1: We are going to dive into this moment between Lane
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Speaker 1: and Rory. So here, I'm sitting in a stage for you.
2:34
Speaker 1: Close your eyes, everybody, close your eyes. Visualize this with me.
2:38
Speaker 1: The town is getting ready for the Flower Show. There
2:40
Speaker 1: is a search party underway for the missing fifty nine
2:44
Speaker 1: Easter eggs that are rotting across Stars Hollow. Kirk hid
2:48
Speaker 1: hundreds of Easter eggs, but only only a few. Not
2:52
Speaker 1: all of them were found. Not all of them were found.
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Speaker 1: We left fifty nine out there. There's a terrible smell
2:58
Speaker 1: that is just wreaking havoc on Stars Hollow, and everyone's
3:01
Speaker 1: sick of it. So we once we determine the source
3:03
Speaker 1: of the smell, we got to go find those eggs.
3:05
Speaker 1: Everyone's looking for him. Lane and Rory are walking through
3:09
Speaker 1: the middle of town. We joined them. Mid conversation, Lane
3:13
Speaker 1: is talking about the death to Disco movement in the
3:16
Speaker 1: late seventies. When we got rich, we decided we were
3:18
Speaker 1: done with disco, and Rory says, there's no disco to
3:21
Speaker 1: kill anymore. They wiped it out. It's the last of
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Speaker 1: the buffalo. The disco's gone. But Lane replies, there are
3:26
Speaker 1: other things that need wiping out, phony rappers, most techno,
3:29
Speaker 1: alt country, Christian rock, anything fusion, classic alternative radio world
3:33
Speaker 1: they do is play the same Nirvana song over and
3:35
Speaker 1: over again, the Rubens, the Clays, the Clarksons, and then
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Speaker 1: Rory says it's going to be a bloodbath. Okay, Lane,
3:42
Speaker 1: I'm going to disagree with you. I don't want the Rubens,
3:44
Speaker 1: the Clays, and the Clarksons run out of town. We
3:46
Speaker 1: like Ruben, Clay and Clarkson. And in case you missed
3:49
Speaker 1: that when you saw this on TV and you didn't
3:52
Speaker 1: know who they were talking about, we were talking about
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Speaker 1: Rubens Suttered, Clay Aiken, and Kelly Clarkson. Those are the
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Speaker 1: superstars of the first two seasons of America Idol. We
4:00
Speaker 1: know that Kelly Clarkson is the first Idol. She won
4:03
Speaker 1: season one season two. It was such a tight race.
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Speaker 1: A lot of people believe the phone system at Idol
4:10
Speaker 1: was not equipped to handle the sheer volume of calls
4:13
Speaker 1: that came in to vote for Clay aichin for Ruben Stuttered.
4:16
Speaker 1: Ruben Stutter took home the trophy in season two. He
4:20
Speaker 1: was the winner, but Clay Aiken was a close second
4:24
Speaker 1: and he went on to have an incredible career, releasing
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Speaker 1: seven albums. He's an incredible this guy. He didn't just
4:30
Speaker 1: become a musical superstar. I mean he ran for public
4:33
Speaker 1: office in North Carolina. He was on Broadway. This guy's
4:37
Speaker 1: done at all And we are going to talk to
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Speaker 1: Clay Aiken, the legendary Clay Achen. I had to pinch
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Speaker 1: myself if this is happening. I'm just like so excited
4:45
Speaker 1: about this. We're such big fans of you.
4:47
Speaker 3: Oh well, thank you.
4:48
Speaker 2: When people say the word when people use legend or legendary,
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Speaker 2: just makes you feel old.
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Speaker 3: No, that's what they do when you're.
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Speaker 1: Old, Clay. Do you know how many babies are legendary
4:56
Speaker 1: that exists? That does not mean old, That just means impact.
5:00
Speaker 1: That means, uh, you're iconic, that this is a that Yes, exactly, Okay,
5:08
Speaker 1: Clay Achin. I mean we got to talk American Idol,
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Speaker 1: like season season two, American Idol runner up. It's one
5:17
Speaker 1: of those things where I always say this, and I'm
5:19
Speaker 1: not trying to like dis Idol by saying this, but
5:21
Speaker 1: like if you walk down the street, if I walk
5:23
Speaker 1: down the street right now and I say, like, pull
5:25
Speaker 1: a random person, I say name people from American Idol,
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Speaker 1: they will say Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aikin, Ruben stuttered. I
5:31
Speaker 1: guarantee it like those Carrieantasic further down the list first
5:35
Speaker 1: four seasons. Yes, yes, but like you were, You and
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Speaker 1: Ruben were such memorable parts of this show's entire legacy.
5:44
Speaker 1: I mean, what when you if we can go back
5:47
Speaker 1: to what two thousand and three, when you were auditioning for,
5:51
Speaker 1: like when you first became aware of American Idol, what
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Speaker 1: was going through your head, Like did you think this
5:55
Speaker 1: was going to amount to anything? Did you think like, no, no, no,
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Speaker 1: none of us.
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Speaker 3: In fact, I mean.
6:02
Speaker 2: We were the start of the show. Really, I don't don't.
6:06
Speaker 2: Obviously Kelly's done very well, but season one I think
6:10
Speaker 2: like nine million viewersh I didn't watch it.
6:13
Speaker 3: I did not even see the season. I didn't see
6:15
Speaker 3: season one at all.
6:16
Speaker 2: It was a summer series, which is part of why
6:18
Speaker 2: because I was not I was doing other things during
6:20
Speaker 2: the summer, and so I think it was just it
6:24
Speaker 2: just got enough viewers for Fox to be like, Okay,
6:25
Speaker 2: we'll do it again. And the only reason I auditioned
6:28
Speaker 2: is because I had been home that summer in Raleigh,
6:32
Speaker 2: and I went back to Charlotte for the school year,
6:36
Speaker 2: and the mother of one of the kids who I
6:39
Speaker 2: worked with had seen it and said, oh, you should
6:42
Speaker 2: audition for that.
6:43
Speaker 3: And I was like, no, I don't want to do TV.
6:45
Speaker 3: I mean I had not seen it or anything, and
6:47
Speaker 3: so she essentially just said no, you gotta got it.
6:51
Speaker 2: And I finally said, Okay, I'll do it. If you
6:52
Speaker 2: stop nagging me, I'll do it. And I wouldn't have
6:55
Speaker 2: auditioned it. I wouldn't have even done that if there
6:56
Speaker 2: hadn't been an audition in Charlotte, so I didn't have
6:59
Speaker 2: to go anywhere.
7:01
Speaker 3: And so it was, and that was.
7:03
Speaker 2: It was two thousand and two when we auditioned and
7:06
Speaker 2: I didn't make it in Charlotte. I didn't make it through.
7:09
Speaker 2: And I am just one of those there's nothing that
7:12
Speaker 2: will motivate me more than being told no. I mean
7:15
Speaker 2: you anything, anything in the world you could beg me
7:20
Speaker 2: to do, and buddy, you tell me no, I'm getting
7:23
Speaker 2: that now. And so that since I got told no,
7:26
Speaker 2: it was like, screw it, and so I did. I
7:28
Speaker 2: drove to Atlanta the next week and I camped out
7:30
Speaker 2: on the street for two nights because I was like,
7:32
Speaker 2: be damned if you're gonna cut me on the first day,
7:37
Speaker 2: and so I uh so I was stubborn and insistent
7:41
Speaker 2: then and went back. But at the time, even then,
7:45
Speaker 2: so I had to camp out. It was a huge,
7:47
Speaker 2: huge thing in Atlanta. Now, I think there were like
7:49
Speaker 2: two thousand people in line, which sounded at the time huge,
7:53
Speaker 2: whereas season three and season four, I think they had
7:56
Speaker 2: tens of thousands in line in every city. But even
7:59
Speaker 2: then on the street, none of us knew that. A
8:03
Speaker 2: of course in Atlanta, I didn't know that it was
8:05
Speaker 2: going to change my whole life. And I also did
8:09
Speaker 2: not realized the show was going to be a hit,
8:13
Speaker 2: right because nine million viewers it was enough at the
8:16
Speaker 2: time to get a pick up again, But it wasn't.
8:19
Speaker 3: It was not a juggernaut.
8:21
Speaker 2: It was not the And I say to people, I
8:23
Speaker 2: think that has a lot to do with why Kelly
8:28
Speaker 2: and myself and Ruben and Fantasia connected with audiences better too,
8:35
Speaker 2: because we didn't expect it. Like in subsequent years later
8:39
Speaker 2: season five and beyond, they.
8:41
Speaker 3: All knew what it could do.
8:42
Speaker 2: Kelly had won Grammys, Fantasia had won Grammys, and I
8:46
Speaker 2: had not, but the people can knew what they were
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Speaker 2: getting when they showed up to auditions, so they came
8:56
Speaker 2: more prepared and polished, and I came looking a miss
9:00
Speaker 2: because you know, we didn't we were prepared. We did
9:03
Speaker 2: not realize that there was what the stakes were, and
9:06
Speaker 2: I think so for that reason, all of us, all
9:08
Speaker 2: of us in season two, were wide eyed and fascinated
9:14
Speaker 2: by this and we didn't even know it was a
9:16
Speaker 2: huge hit until I didn't realize it was a hit
9:18
Speaker 2: until the show was season was almost over.
9:20
Speaker 1: Wow.
9:22
Speaker 2: We knew that we were going to get to be
9:24
Speaker 2: on the cover People magazine at one point, like we
9:26
Speaker 2: knew that was happening because we had to go to
9:28
Speaker 2: the photo shoot for it. But we were very sequestered.
9:32
Speaker 2: We lived in the house together. We would go out
9:36
Speaker 2: once a week to go shopping for our outfits, and
9:40
Speaker 2: outside of that, we lived at the studio and we
9:42
Speaker 2: didn't really know what was going on. They had they
9:45
Speaker 2: had were pretty strict inside the idle house as to
9:47
Speaker 2: what we could see from the outside world. We weren't.
9:51
Speaker 2: We didn't have the internet back then. We had a computer,
9:54
Speaker 2: had dial up on it, and nobody wasted time to
9:56
Speaker 2: go down there and deal with it. So we didn't
10:00
Speaker 2: realize it was a big deal. We didn't have the
10:02
Speaker 2: entertainment tonight in the house. We didn't know that it
10:04
Speaker 2: was the biggest show in the country. And all we
10:07
Speaker 2: saw every week were the fact that there were three
10:10
Speaker 2: hundred people in the studio watching and cheering. And I
10:14
Speaker 2: was convinced that some of the signs that they were
10:16
Speaker 2: holding were being made for them by the production, like
10:18
Speaker 2: here they were handing them out to everybody.
10:21
Speaker 3: I didn't like. We did not know.
10:24
Speaker 2: And until this episode, I guess week thirteen or something
10:30
Speaker 2: like that. Fourteen, the week of the Top three, they
10:34
Speaker 2: flew Reuben and kim Lock and I back to our
10:36
Speaker 2: hometowns to because you know, homecoming, and I we flew,
10:44
Speaker 2: we got fly private. Was very exciting, all right, And
10:49
Speaker 2: when we got to Raleigh, they took me from the
10:50
Speaker 2: airport directly to the helicopter for the local news station,
10:56
Speaker 2: and the helicopter for the local news station then flew
10:59
Speaker 2: me to the baseball stadium where I was going to
11:01
Speaker 2: throw out the first pitch and I just assumed it
11:04
Speaker 2: and there were fifteen thousand people there screaming, and I
11:08
Speaker 2: it was like, Holy, this show is big. I did
11:11
Speaker 2: not know. We had no idea how big it was.
11:14
Speaker 1: I didn't know that you guys were like sequestered during
11:17
Speaker 1: this That's wild to me. So it's almost like you
11:20
Speaker 1: almost had like a big brother like real world situation
11:23
Speaker 1: going on too, right.
11:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it didn't happen like that in later seasons. Season
11:27
Speaker 2: one had happened, had been, like I said, enough to
11:31
Speaker 2: get them back on TV. And so season two they
11:34
Speaker 2: had this idea that they were going to have us
11:36
Speaker 2: all live in the same house together and they were
11:38
Speaker 2: going to also film sort of the behind the scenes
11:40
Speaker 2: footage for bonus content, and they never ended up doing it.
11:45
Speaker 2: They just didn't have time in the episodes to get
11:47
Speaker 2: that and they didn't need to, so they put us
11:50
Speaker 2: all in the house, and I think, I don't remember.
11:52
Speaker 2: I feel like we're the only season. Season one might
11:56
Speaker 2: have also, but I feel like we might have been
11:58
Speaker 2: the only season to live in a house together like that.
12:00
Speaker 2: And I say sequestered because part of it was intentional.
12:05
Speaker 2: You know, they didn't want us, they didn't want us
12:08
Speaker 2: getting in our heads about who might be doing better
12:11
Speaker 2: than others.
12:12
Speaker 3: But largely we were.
12:14
Speaker 2: Just so busy and we were constantly busy, and they
12:18
Speaker 2: did not want to give us. They didn't give us
12:21
Speaker 2: access to shows like Entertainment Tonight and that kind of
12:24
Speaker 2: thing because they didn't want us know. They didn't really
12:26
Speaker 2: want us know what was gone. But like I said,
12:27
Speaker 2: we didn't have the internet back then. I mean we did,
12:29
Speaker 2: but it wasn't what it is now. So we we
12:34
Speaker 2: were sequestered by time at the time too, in the
12:40
Speaker 2: same way we all were sequested in the eighties and nineties.
12:42
Speaker 2: We just didn't have access to the information. So I
12:45
Speaker 2: mean we saw the like they brought us copies of
12:48
Speaker 2: the People magazine when we were on the cover of it.
12:51
Speaker 2: You know, we saw them, but we didn't know that,
12:54
Speaker 2: Like we didn't see the overnight ratings like they were seeing.
12:57
Speaker 2: The production was seeing that, you know, they had gone
13:00
Speaker 2: from nine million i'm a finale of season one to
13:03
Speaker 2: like twenty five million an episode in our season and
13:07
Speaker 2: then forty million for the finale, and we had no clue.
13:11
Speaker 1: It's so crazy now during the finale, the moment you
13:16
Speaker 1: find out that you did not win, I mean, how
13:19
Speaker 1: did that?
13:19
Speaker 3: What? What?
13:25
Speaker 1: Like I just can't imagine things are so again, like
13:29
Speaker 1: this is the only thing you're doing you're so focused
13:31
Speaker 1: on it, you want it more than anything. Then you
13:34
Speaker 1: find out you got second Like, what was going through
13:36
Speaker 1: your mind at that moment?
13:37
Speaker 2: Oh, well, I knew before I had seen the card backstage.
13:41
Speaker 2: We were standing backstage behind the big screen before we
13:44
Speaker 2: went out the commercial and Ryan Seacrest was kind of
13:47
Speaker 2: standing next to me. Ruben and I were talking and
13:49
Speaker 2: I looked over and Ryan had pulled the card out
13:52
Speaker 2: to look and I saw it over his shoulder.
13:54
Speaker 3: So I knew that Ruben had won.
13:56
Speaker 2: So if you go back and watch the episode and
13:58
Speaker 2: that moment, you actually see that I'm staring at him
14:02
Speaker 2: during it.
14:02
Speaker 3: I'm not even looking forward.
14:03
Speaker 2: I'm staying staring at him because I knew because I
14:06
Speaker 2: had told myself all I want to see his face
14:08
Speaker 2: when he survives out even went one.
14:11
Speaker 3: So so that sort of spoiled it a little bit.
14:13
Speaker 2: But also neither one of us we just weren't again,
14:18
Speaker 2: we didn't know what the stakes were. Yeah, we didn't
14:21
Speaker 2: realize even in that finale. I think by the finale
14:23
Speaker 2: we had kind of realized that it was a big
14:25
Speaker 2: show because we had been home by that point, and
14:29
Speaker 2: I they even did a satellite uplink to Raleigh back
14:33
Speaker 2: then of and they had like nine thousand people in
14:35
Speaker 2: the arena watching live.
14:38
Speaker 3: So I was like, oh, this is big.
14:40
Speaker 2: But we had already been told that we were both
14:42
Speaker 2: going to get record deals. We had already been you know,
14:46
Speaker 2: we'd also we were tired. Yeah, it was a very
14:49
Speaker 2: rigorous schedule. So I was not competitive. Ruben says he
14:54
Speaker 2: wasn't either. He was probably a little bit more than me,
14:56
Speaker 2: but neither.
14:57
Speaker 3: One of us. I think either one of us.
15:00
Speaker 2: We would have been excited to just go onto the
15:02
Speaker 2: next step and see what was next.
15:04
Speaker 3: So, you know, I didn't find myself.
15:07
Speaker 2: I didn't find myself being disappointed for having lost until
15:11
Speaker 2: the next season when they did the opening package of
15:15
Speaker 2: the show and it had a picture of Kelly on
15:17
Speaker 2: it and then a picture of Reuben, and then I
15:19
Speaker 2: was like, well, and so for like the next six
15:22
Speaker 2: seventh season they had they had the winners, the earlier winners,
15:26
Speaker 2: and they probably still do, I don't know, And I
15:29
Speaker 2: was like, well, damn, I don't get mentioned.
15:32
Speaker 3: That was the only time I ever cared.
15:35
Speaker 1: I mean, you're like kind of the poster child for like,
15:38
Speaker 1: you don't need to win Idle to have a great career,
15:42
Speaker 1: like like so like right after the season ended, I mean,
15:46
Speaker 1: you get your record deal? Invisible is such. I love
15:49
Speaker 1: that song. God, I love that song. It's so good.
15:52
Speaker 2: Well, Dave all Day the dance got the DJ Dave
15:54
Speaker 2: all Da just remixed it and just we just put
15:58
Speaker 2: those out like a few weeks ago, which is like
16:00
Speaker 2: this whole new resurgence of the song. I guess, so
16:03
Speaker 2: now you have two more versions to listen to.
16:05
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I was going to mention that a bit later,
16:08
Speaker 1: but hey, let's jump to that. Actually, you you just
16:10
Speaker 1: released this remix with day A Boy Day And how
16:14
Speaker 1: what was it like? I watched the videos of you,
16:16
Speaker 1: like going down to Nashville to meet up with them
16:18
Speaker 1: and going to the studio and everything. What was it
16:20
Speaker 1: like revisiting that song again to create this new version?
16:24
Speaker 2: Well weird in so many ways because I because it's
16:27
Speaker 2: been a while, it's been right and so and I
16:31
Speaker 2: don't again, I don't.
16:32
Speaker 3: I don't really know that. I knew.
16:35
Speaker 2: There were there were other hits in two thousand and three, obviously,
16:40
Speaker 2: but the genre that there were not many pop hits
16:45
Speaker 2: back then, you know, like that in two thousand and
16:47
Speaker 2: three was the r Kelly Era and the and when
16:51
Speaker 2: it came to pop it was very avril lavine heavy
16:54
Speaker 2: and that kind of stuff. So like the Bubblegummy pop,
16:56
Speaker 2: there just wasn't much back in the early two thousands
16:58
Speaker 2: as much in the early two thousands, so I think
17:00
Speaker 2: that's why it might have endured a little bit better.
17:03
Speaker 2: I didn't realize that though, But going back and singing
17:06
Speaker 2: it again was wild, because you know, I don't I
17:10
Speaker 2: don't remember how long it took to record it the
17:11
Speaker 2: first time, but Desmond Child produced it, and he's a
17:14
Speaker 2: perfectionist and it shows his work is incredible. But it
17:19
Speaker 2: you know, we did it a lot to get it right.
17:23
Speaker 2: But now having even though I it's been twenty three
17:26
Speaker 2: years or twenty two years since I recorded it, I've
17:30
Speaker 2: sung it seven thousand times right, So it was it
17:35
Speaker 2: was a very different experience going in the studio to
17:37
Speaker 2: record it now because it's so in my bones that
17:40
Speaker 2: I kind of was able to sleep through it and
17:42
Speaker 2: just do it. I don't have perfect pitch. You know
17:47
Speaker 2: those people who can pick you can say singing a flat,
17:49
Speaker 2: and they can sing an a flat.
17:50
Speaker 3: I can't.
17:51
Speaker 2: I don't have perfect pitch except for the fact that
17:53
Speaker 2: I can start invisible on the right note every time
17:56
Speaker 2: because I've done it so much, so I guess maybe.
17:57
Speaker 3: I do now.
17:59
Speaker 2: So it was weird to go back in and record
18:02
Speaker 2: it again. But it was even weirder because, like, I'm
18:05
Speaker 2: not a dance music kind of person. Yeah, it's not
18:08
Speaker 2: necessarily what people think of when they think of klay
18:11
Speaker 2: Ach and right, So it was sort of surreal to
18:13
Speaker 2: be in with the biggest DJ.
18:18
Speaker 3: Really probably ever when it comes to remixing stuff. I mean, yeah,
18:22
Speaker 3: he was the.
18:23
Speaker 2: First and the he's the OG, and he's had like
18:25
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty five number one hits, So to
18:28
Speaker 2: be in there with someone who was so very dance
18:32
Speaker 2: music was a little surreal for me. It's not you know,
18:37
Speaker 2: I said to people, it is not something that was
18:38
Speaker 2: on my bucket list, nor even something I ever thought
18:43
Speaker 2: would happen. But I love what he did. I think
18:46
Speaker 2: it's so fun.
18:48
Speaker 1: I love it. And something I love about you and
18:51
Speaker 1: like following your career, like you're you're never afraid to
18:53
Speaker 1: step out of your comfort zone, Like there's so much
18:56
Speaker 1: You've done so much stuff, and.
19:00
Speaker 3: May be afraid of some of the things I've done,
19:02
Speaker 3: but I'm never doing some of them again.
19:06
Speaker 1: But you try it, you know, you do?
19:08
Speaker 3: You have to.
19:09
Speaker 2: I also think I mean, listen, I went into this,
19:13
Speaker 2: like I said, not knowing what to expect, not expecting
19:16
Speaker 2: it to change my life. I didn't plan on being
19:18
Speaker 2: a singer. I didn't plan on making a life and entertainment.
19:21
Speaker 2: I was going to be a teacher.
19:22
Speaker 1: Wow.
19:22
Speaker 2: And so there were so many things in those early
19:26
Speaker 2: years that were just like an opportunity that I never
19:30
Speaker 2: thought i'd have, So let's do it. Like I sang
19:33
Speaker 2: for the World Series and also not a sports person, right,
19:36
Speaker 2: sang for Miss America, which I'm probably closer to. But
19:39
Speaker 2: I never thought i'd get, you know, and spam a
19:42
Speaker 2: lot doing Broadway and we chose spam a loot, my
19:45
Speaker 2: manager and I at the time chose spam a loot.
19:48
Speaker 3: There were several shows that had asked me.
19:49
Speaker 2: To do them, but it's Mike Nichols, and it's silly,
19:53
Speaker 2: and it's not something that people would expect. And I
19:58
Speaker 2: found that doing things that people wouldn't expect tends to
20:05
Speaker 2: open up other doors for you. And so yeah, so
20:08
Speaker 2: the I don't think I'm gonna do a dance album, no,
20:11
Speaker 2: but it is something that is interesting and different, and
20:15
Speaker 2: I like, you know when I when I die, I'll
20:19
Speaker 2: be able to say I tried a little bit of
20:20
Speaker 2: everything on my plate.
20:22
Speaker 1: I love it. I absolutely love it. Is there is
20:24
Speaker 1: there a genre of music or like a style that
20:27
Speaker 1: you've always kind of wanted to play around it and
20:29
Speaker 1: you haven't done it yet.
20:30
Speaker 2: This is gonna make me sound so bad. I don't
20:32
Speaker 2: know one genre from the next, to be honest.
20:34
Speaker 1: With you, I love that.
20:35
Speaker 2: If you opened up my my, you know the stuff
20:39
Speaker 2: I listened to, there's zero rhyme.
20:42
Speaker 3: I think.
20:43
Speaker 2: I think that YouTube music is completely confused by me,
20:48
Speaker 2: like it doesn't get uh. So, I mean I like singers.
20:53
Speaker 2: I like I like songs that have to be sung.
20:56
Speaker 2: That's why I do have always done. I've done a
20:58
Speaker 2: lot of ballads in the past, but there a lot
21:00
Speaker 2: of great up tempo songs that have to be sung also,
21:02
Speaker 2: So I gravitate towards anything that's got a melody that
21:06
Speaker 2: I want to sing, and that can.
21:07
Speaker 3: Be Broadway R and B, jazz rock, you.
21:13
Speaker 2: Know, I mean anything, And so I don't know, you know,
21:19
Speaker 2: I am very recently, I have been very drawn to
21:23
Speaker 2: these groups that are reviving some of the sounds of
21:27
Speaker 2: the eighties, you know, the synth wave era, and I've
21:31
Speaker 2: always loved that sort of I've felt at times that
21:35
Speaker 2: I've was born too late or too soon one I
21:39
Speaker 2: don't know, because you know the Peter Satara Richard Marks era,
21:42
Speaker 2: that period in the eighties and early nineties when Balladier's
21:46
Speaker 2: did had number one hits, big to all the time.
21:50
Speaker 2: I love that, so, I mean, I can't say I
21:53
Speaker 2: haven't played around with it. I did a whole album
21:55
Speaker 2: of songs from the eighties. But that's where I've That's
21:58
Speaker 2: probably where I feel mo comfortable.
22:00
Speaker 1: Gosha, I love it. Clay Achine is hanging out with us.
22:04
Speaker 1: It is I smell pop culture. We have to play
22:06
Speaker 1: just a few commercials here. Everybody stick around. We'll be
22:08
Speaker 1: right back. It's I smell pop culture. My name is Easton.
22:19
Speaker 1: I'm hanging out with Clay Achin. I can't believe I
22:21
Speaker 1: get to say those words. I'm hanging out with Clay
22:23
Speaker 1: Achin Season two of American Idol. Just one of the
22:26
Speaker 1: coolest guys around too. As I've been hanging out with
22:28
Speaker 1: him today. He's just the You did not disappoint you
22:31
Speaker 1: exceeded every expectation.
22:34
Speaker 2: I'm always so much nicer when people say such nice thing,
22:36
Speaker 2: so it makes it makes it easier.
22:39
Speaker 1: Okay, So unfortunately I have to I do have to
22:42
Speaker 1: bring up you were referencing Gilmore Girls, and it's not
22:46
Speaker 1: it's not mean, but it's also not super nice. I
22:49
Speaker 1: just have to warn you.
22:50
Speaker 3: Oh trust it, listen, I'm sure it is not the worst.
22:55
Speaker 1: So at this moment in Gilmore Girls, there's a character
22:58
Speaker 1: Elaine who's kind of like a music snob, and she's
23:01
Speaker 1: walking with Rory the daughter and there and Lane is
23:04
Speaker 1: talking about the period in the late seventies when we
23:07
Speaker 1: kind of like decided we were going to run disco
23:09
Speaker 1: out of town, like we're done with disco, and she's saying,
23:12
Speaker 1: now a days, there's more music we need to like
23:15
Speaker 1: kind of get out of town. And that includes phony, rappers, techno, walt, country,
23:20
Speaker 1: the Rubens, the Clays, the Clarksons. So you Kelly and
23:24
Speaker 1: Ruben were kind of, yeah, never.
23:27
Speaker 3: Can run there, don't ever run her out of town.
23:29
Speaker 1: No, And obviously we want nothing but more Clay more,
23:34
Speaker 1: Ruben more, Kelly, we want it all. But how did
23:37
Speaker 1: you react to like, like there was a period I
23:39
Speaker 1: remember where like it, you know, the it was like
23:42
Speaker 1: cool to like clown on American Idol and the singers
23:46
Speaker 1: that came from that.
23:47
Speaker 2: Have been in I have been in populations and groups
23:50
Speaker 2: and democratic I have been a part, yeah, of all,
23:55
Speaker 2: or many many of the most popular things to make
23:57
Speaker 2: fun of.
23:58
Speaker 3: So how did I feel about that?
24:01
Speaker 1: How do you handle that?
24:03
Speaker 2: Well, frankly, it had I mean it depends on what
24:06
Speaker 2: I don't know. I was the idle thing was nothing
24:09
Speaker 2: compared to the gay jokes, right, so you learn at
24:12
Speaker 2: some point.
24:13
Speaker 3: I look back on.
24:14
Speaker 2: Let me put it this way, I can't tell you
24:16
Speaker 2: how I handled it in a moment. I'm sure I
24:19
Speaker 2: did the stiff upper lip think and pretended it and't
24:20
Speaker 2: bother me, And I'd be lying if I said it didn't.
24:23
Speaker 2: But I can't remember it bothering me because now I
24:26
Speaker 2: look at things and go, oh my god, jokes were
24:28
Speaker 2: so much funnier when you were making fun of me
24:30
Speaker 2: for being gay.
24:31
Speaker 3: I mean, like, it's just not funny anymore. And I
24:34
Speaker 3: did listen.
24:36
Speaker 2: The gay jokes probably bothered me most during that period
24:39
Speaker 2: when I was not out.
24:41
Speaker 3: I didn't know I was gay myself.
24:42
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't really realize I was gay myself
24:44
Speaker 2: until I was on Idol.
24:45
Speaker 3: It was halfway through the season that I.
24:48
Speaker 2: Was like, oh wait a second, and so gay jokes
24:52
Speaker 2: prior to that went right over my head, and gay
24:56
Speaker 2: jokes after that probably only bothered me because I was
24:59
Speaker 2: afraid my mom was going to hear them and believe
25:01
Speaker 2: them or that kind of thing. But looking but then
25:05
Speaker 2: after when I came out public, I okay, go for it.
25:08
Speaker 2: Who cares, it's what it is. And for better for worse,
25:14
Speaker 2: you know my name because of them. Because I was
25:16
Speaker 2: in the punchlines to to every late night show between
25:21
Speaker 2: two thousand and three and two thousand and eight, there
25:23
Speaker 2: was probably a gay joke. There was a period for
25:26
Speaker 2: a while where I could hear a setup of a
25:28
Speaker 2: gay joke coming in a show or a movie or
25:31
Speaker 2: a stand up set, and I'd be like, oh my god,
25:33
Speaker 2: it's gonna say my name. They're gonna say my name,
25:35
Speaker 2: and bam they say it was always me. And I
25:39
Speaker 2: actually found myself getting more impressed when you could surprise me,
25:42
Speaker 2: because I wasn't surprised anymore.
25:46
Speaker 1: Wow. And when you when you came out, I know
25:50
Speaker 1: you said you you lost so many fans when that happened,
25:53
Speaker 1: and it was such a such a hard time to
25:57
Speaker 1: be that open, and I just want you to know that, like,
26:00
Speaker 1: I'm just so inspired by it, and it's so like
26:03
Speaker 1: there's so many young people that look up to you
26:06
Speaker 1: and you're courage your bravery when that happened, I just
26:09
Speaker 1: think it's just so important. And you know you'll lose
26:11
Speaker 1: some fans, but like it's I don't know, I just
26:14
Speaker 1: I found that so inspiring.
26:17
Speaker 2: I think, well, I think everybody, I didn't do anything
26:20
Speaker 2: any differently than anyone else who has to come out does.
26:23
Speaker 2: I just happened to do it publicly, right, but everybody,
26:27
Speaker 2: I mean.
26:27
Speaker 3: It's it's it's it's not a public thing. It's a
26:30
Speaker 3: very personal thing.
26:31
Speaker 2: So absolutely the anxiety that I might have had doing
26:34
Speaker 2: it is absolutely no bigger than the anxiety that someone
26:37
Speaker 2: has who's just coming out to one parent. Right, it's scaryish.
26:42
Speaker 2: It's the same level of scaryish no matter what, because
26:45
Speaker 2: it's so personal. But I want to clarify I didn't,
26:49
Speaker 2: you know, I think when I did mention that last
26:53
Speaker 2: year at some point when I was talking about a
26:54
Speaker 2: Christmas doing Christmas album press, and I mentioned that, yeah,
26:57
Speaker 2: fifty percent, and people were skeptical of that, and I
27:01
Speaker 2: think we had hard numbers apparently from sales at Spamalot
27:07
Speaker 2: that literally got cut from eighty two percent to forty
27:09
Speaker 2: one the next week.
27:10
Speaker 3: Wow.
27:10
Speaker 2: But I do need to clarify that I don't really
27:14
Speaker 2: think that that was about homophobia or people not liking
27:19
Speaker 2: me because I was gay. I mean, obviously that's happens everywhere,
27:24
Speaker 2: but I've also seen myself prior to them, and if
27:27
Speaker 2: you didn't like gay people, you didn't like me already.
27:30
Speaker 2: So I'm well aware now that everybody knew. I can
27:35
Speaker 2: see it now, But but I think that there was
27:39
Speaker 2: it was less about that, and it was more about
27:41
Speaker 2: the fact that, you know, so many of the folks
27:43
Speaker 2: who who followed me from Idol were you know, teenage
27:48
Speaker 2: girls who had some sort of idealization and a fantasy
27:52
Speaker 2: that was maybe taken away or or killed in some
27:57
Speaker 2: way at the time. And you know, obviously that's not
28:01
Speaker 2: my intention. I didn't intend any of it. I didn't
28:03
Speaker 2: intend for them to fall in love with me in
28:04
Speaker 2: the first place, so I certainly didn't mean to upset them.
28:07
Speaker 2: But so I just I say that to clarify because
28:10
Speaker 2: it's the first time anybody has asked me about it
28:11
Speaker 2: since I did that, I said that that it wasn't
28:14
Speaker 2: it wasn't about I don't think people left because they
28:18
Speaker 2: had a problem with my sexual orientation.
28:21
Speaker 3: I think that, you know, I it was.
28:24
Speaker 2: A audience was looking for something that they weren't able
28:31
Speaker 2: to get anymore. And yes, people are gonna say, well,
28:33
Speaker 2: obviously they should have known they weren't gonna you know,
28:36
Speaker 2: but it's you know, we have relationships with our we
28:39
Speaker 2: have secret, private relationships with the celebrities who we love right,
28:44
Speaker 2: who have no idea who we are, and we fantasize
28:47
Speaker 2: about the day that we're gonna you know, I had
28:50
Speaker 2: I used to have a crush.
28:51
Speaker 3: I'm not even to say who was wrong, because I
28:53
Speaker 3: do not have it anymore.
28:56
Speaker 2: But I used to have a crush on some on
28:58
Speaker 2: on some guy on TV, and oh my god, I
29:01
Speaker 2: just like every time he.
29:02
Speaker 3: Came on TV, I thought, I was like, he's speaking
29:04
Speaker 3: straight to me. And I was like twenty eight at
29:07
Speaker 3: the time. I'm embarrassed, but but still, I uh it.
29:14
Speaker 2: You know, when that goes away, when you have that,
29:17
Speaker 2: it's irrational, right, Yeah, And so there were there were
29:20
Speaker 2: there were certainly there girls right now who have irrational
29:25
Speaker 2: love for, you know, one of the Backstreet Boys, or
29:28
Speaker 2: for Sewan Mendez, or for Harry Styles, and they love
29:32
Speaker 2: him because they think maybe he'll look at them and
29:34
Speaker 2: he'll it'll be like Mary, like Kate Middleton and Prince William,
29:37
Speaker 2: you know, you get you'll get to be that one
29:40
Speaker 2: and that can live forever.
29:42
Speaker 3: But it got killed by me right when I came out.
29:45
Speaker 2: And I think that was probably a bigger part of
29:47
Speaker 2: why there was a drop off, because I don't think
29:51
Speaker 2: that I don't think that it was about, oh, we
29:54
Speaker 2: don't like gay people.
29:55
Speaker 3: We had gay people. It was just because, oh, I
29:57
Speaker 3: can't marry you now.
30:00
Speaker 1: Anyway, I appreciate that clarification, and you know, like I
30:03
Speaker 1: think about it, and I remember when I don't know
30:06
Speaker 1: how old I was, but like I think when I
30:08
Speaker 1: was like twelve, I had had a huge crush on
30:10
Speaker 1: Posh Spice, on Victoria Victoria Adams at the time, and
30:13
Speaker 1: then when she married David Beckham, I remember being depressed,
30:16
Speaker 1: Like I was like actively depressed, and I was like,
30:18
Speaker 1: I'm twelve, I live in a marriage. She's not going
30:20
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be with Victoria Beckham. But like I
30:23
Speaker 1: remember being sad and so I guess.
30:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, and I said it on that day, right,
30:29
Speaker 2: or when that story came out, you know, when I
30:32
Speaker 2: came out publicly and confirmed it with my own voice, right,
30:36
Speaker 2: you know, I imagine thirteen and fourteen year old girls
30:41
Speaker 2: all over the country having to go take my poster
30:44
Speaker 2: off their wall, you know, not because they didn't like
30:47
Speaker 2: me because being gay. But it's like, ugh, I can't
30:50
Speaker 2: fantasize about that anymore. And it wasn't like it was
30:53
Speaker 2: a sexual fantasy. It was more of a oh my god,
30:54
Speaker 2: I can bringing home to mom and dad. He's not
30:56
Speaker 2: going to try anything funny and come a kind of
31:00
Speaker 2: a fantasy. And I say, you know, it's interesting, now,
31:06
Speaker 2: what has it been fifteen it's been seventeen years because
31:08
Speaker 2: my kids just turned seventeen and seventeen years later to
31:13
Speaker 2: be having left music and coming back to it now
31:18
Speaker 2: to say, you know, there's been space for any of
31:22
Speaker 2: that hard there's the heartbreak to go away and now
31:26
Speaker 2: you know the relationship is different, can be different. Those
31:29
Speaker 2: any of those thirteen fourteen year old girls who had
31:32
Speaker 2: to take the poster down, who had their heart broken,
31:34
Speaker 2: maybe you know, now we've got some space, you've realized
31:39
Speaker 2: that that was irrational. You don't need to be upset
31:41
Speaker 2: and no, I'm your gay best friend, you know what
31:42
Speaker 2: I mean. Like, it's a different relationship, and it's so
31:46
Speaker 2: it's kind of interesting to go back and see, especially
31:48
Speaker 2: as we as Dave's put out these new invisibles, to
31:52
Speaker 2: see some of these comments on Instagram or wherever. I
31:57
Speaker 2: see people who are like, oh my god, this was
31:58
Speaker 2: my jam, loved this. I'm so glad you're back, because
32:03
Speaker 2: I think I bet some of those I bet some
32:04
Speaker 2: of those girls hated me seventeen years ago.
32:06
Speaker 3: They were pissed, but now they're they're like, it's like,
32:10
Speaker 3: come on home, let's do this again.
32:13
Speaker 1: But you know, you know what I think about, though,
32:14
Speaker 1: is how many for all the girls I had that,
32:16
Speaker 1: you know, there with tears stream on their face, take
32:18
Speaker 1: the clay can poster you down. I wonder how many
32:20
Speaker 1: boys were watching you on American Idol feeling a certain
32:23
Speaker 1: thing and then seeing you be honest about who you
32:27
Speaker 1: are and and and come out publicly, and then they
32:30
Speaker 1: proudly put the klay ak and poster up. I wonder
32:32
Speaker 1: how often that happens I.
32:34
Speaker 2: Don't think there are many people with klayak and posters
32:36
Speaker 2: in their rooms anymore. But you know, listen, I I
32:41
Speaker 2: do hope that I'd love to believe that that happened
32:44
Speaker 2: for for gay, gay boys, gay girls, you know, anybody
32:50
Speaker 2: who felt a little bit misunderstood at the time to
32:54
Speaker 2: see somebody do that. But you know, it was not
32:56
Speaker 2: a Like I said, I it's weird to talk about that,
33:00
Speaker 2: and I can logically understand how maybe that happened, But
33:04
Speaker 2: like I said, it's such a personal thing.
33:06
Speaker 3: Of course, no one who's doing it is or should
33:10
Speaker 3: be doing it.
33:13
Speaker 2: I didn't come out until I did because I didn't
33:16
Speaker 2: want my grandmother to have to I didn't want to
33:18
Speaker 2: have to tell my grandmother.
33:19
Speaker 3: I mean that literally was my fear.
33:21
Speaker 2: In August of two thousand and eight, before the story
33:25
Speaker 2: came out, I was out to my mother, I was
33:26
Speaker 2: out that pretty much everybody who I worked with, nobody
33:28
Speaker 2: else spam a lot. I wasn't out, you know, I
33:30
Speaker 2: was out to people who I was around with no problem,
33:33
Speaker 2: but I didn't want to say it out loud to
33:36
Speaker 2: the whole public, mostly because I didn't want my grandmother
33:39
Speaker 2: to have to read it and I mean, I went,
33:41
Speaker 2: and I went and told her, drove to her house
33:44
Speaker 2: with my brother and took her out into the backyard
33:47
Speaker 2: because my grandfather was sick at the time and was
33:51
Speaker 2: he didn't need to he yeah, So I took her
33:54
Speaker 2: out and I told her, and I cried and cried
33:56
Speaker 2: and cried, and she handled it beautifully, wasn't bothered by
34:00
Speaker 2: But to me, I never would have thought that would
34:02
Speaker 2: be the way she would respond. And so it's so
34:05
Speaker 2: personal that you're not thinking about what it can do
34:08
Speaker 2: for other people. But I mean, I would love to
34:11
Speaker 2: think that that that happened, and I hope it did,
34:14
Speaker 2: and I hope that it continues.
34:16
Speaker 3: To for for people.
34:19
Speaker 2: You know, now, you know there's been there's been a
34:22
Speaker 2: lot of people who've done it since me. So I
34:24
Speaker 2: think there's a lot of example that folks have now
34:28
Speaker 2: better than me.
34:29
Speaker 1: Perhaps Clay ak and you're the coolest guy in the world.
34:32
Speaker 1: We have so much more to get into on I
34:34
Speaker 1: smell pop culture, But for it's just a couple of commercials. Everybody,
34:37
Speaker 1: I'm in a jogging place while they play. Don't worry,
34:38
Speaker 1: I'm not sitting back. I'll be here doing push ups
34:41
Speaker 1: and stuff. We'll be right back. It's ice smell pop culture.
34:52
Speaker 1: My name is Easton. I'm hanging out with Clay Ach
34:54
Speaker 1: and the legendary Clay Ache and from Season two of
34:57
Speaker 1: American Idol. Think it means so open about this, Clay.
35:00
Speaker 1: I just want to mention really quick too, that I'm
35:03
Speaker 1: so inspired and fascinated by your political career. When when
35:08
Speaker 1: you announced that you were running for office in North Carolina,
35:11
Speaker 1: I was like, this is awesome thing.
35:13
Speaker 3: I'm never doing it again, but okay.
35:15
Speaker 1: I think to do that is just so incredible and
35:18
Speaker 1: it's so you know, it's so hard, it is it
35:22
Speaker 1: takes everything from you, and but I just I'm so
35:25
Speaker 1: inspired by people who are willing to put all that
35:27
Speaker 1: on the line to help their community. Like, like, what
35:30
Speaker 1: drew you to make that leap and to go for
35:33
Speaker 1: public office?
35:34
Speaker 2: Well, I was always more interested in that that I
35:36
Speaker 2: was in music. I was very into politics when I
35:38
Speaker 2: was young. I was very into it in high school
35:41
Speaker 2: and was I grew up in a I grew up
35:46
Speaker 2: in a time that was much different than this one, right,
35:48
Speaker 2: So you know I had people like the governor Jim Hunt,
35:51
Speaker 2: who was the governor of North Carolina, who I just
35:53
Speaker 2: still think is a hero Terry Sandford, who was our senator.
35:59
Speaker 2: People who really went into it for public service, and
36:02
Speaker 2: there aren't many left, I mean, sadly.
36:05
Speaker 3: There They are people who are who are.
36:07
Speaker 2: In politics on both sides, who I like, who I
36:11
Speaker 2: think are fine, but I don't I still don't think
36:14
Speaker 2: they're necessarily doing it for the public good. Even the
36:17
Speaker 2: ones I like, I don't think they're really left. So
36:20
Speaker 2: I went into it thinking that it was an opportunity
36:22
Speaker 2: to use the platform that I had from idle to
36:26
Speaker 2: to kind of do something good. And yeah, I don't
36:30
Speaker 2: think that's the case anymore.
36:32
Speaker 3: So I didn't. I didn't hate the process of running.
36:38
Speaker 3: I didn't mind.
36:39
Speaker 2: I mean, it's constantly raising money, which is disgusting. That's
36:42
Speaker 2: all to do was ask people, it's literally it has
36:45
Speaker 2: to be banned. I mean, I'm not gonna say it
36:47
Speaker 2: should be.
36:48
Speaker 3: It has to be. We got to get money out
36:50
Speaker 3: of it. But I didn't dislike that.
36:53
Speaker 2: But I think that that's because you know, so much
36:55
Speaker 2: of politics, even about even in twenty fourteen when I
36:57
Speaker 2: first ran, was very attack driven, right, there was a
37:00
Speaker 2: lot of attack stuff, and I had been attacked already.
37:03
Speaker 2: I mean, not just the stuff we've talked about, but
37:06
Speaker 2: I mean, my first exposure to the public was Simon
37:11
Speaker 2: Caroll telling me that I was awful, or that he
37:15
Speaker 2: preferred me with his eyes closed, Like I was on
37:18
Speaker 2: TV in front of thirty million people having someone insult me.
37:20
Speaker 2: So my skin was plenty thick for politics. But what
37:25
Speaker 2: disheartened me was just the fact that it became and
37:29
Speaker 2: that was probably more evident the second time I ran
37:32
Speaker 2: in twenty two, that it really just was became for
37:36
Speaker 2: so many people about winning, not even about doing anything,
37:41
Speaker 2: you know.
37:41
Speaker 3: And I liken it to sports, where.
37:45
Speaker 2: We don't care if you have a team that you like,
37:48
Speaker 2: if you have a favorite, you don't you hate everybody
37:51
Speaker 2: else because you're so loyal to them. And I don't
37:55
Speaker 2: think that's what politics should be about it certainly, and
37:58
Speaker 2: what I thought it was going to be when I
37:59
Speaker 2: went in to it, and it becomes about just winning
38:04
Speaker 2: and as long as I win and get the job,
38:06
Speaker 2: then I don't care what I have to do to
38:09
Speaker 2: get there, even if you go. And yeah, and I
38:12
Speaker 2: just frankly, I don't like either side now. I mean, yeah,
38:15
Speaker 2: I have a lean, have still lean, but I don't
38:18
Speaker 2: I don't have. There are not many people that I
38:20
Speaker 2: in that in that world who I think are doing
38:23
Speaker 2: things the way they the founding fathers wanted us to.
38:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you there. You have such a great
38:31
Speaker 1: attitude about like coming being the runner up, coming in
38:35
Speaker 1: second place, like your Instagram says like American Idle runner up,
38:39
Speaker 1: apprentice runner up, political runner up. What advice do you
38:42
Speaker 1: have for people out there that feel like they're constantly
38:45
Speaker 1: like just out of reach of what they want, that
38:47
Speaker 1: they're always coming in second or something like that.
38:51
Speaker 3: Own it.
38:51
Speaker 2: I mean, that's and recalibrate your I mean, I'm not
38:56
Speaker 2: saying if you feel like you're just out of reach
38:58
Speaker 2: of what you want, I don't know that you should
39:03
Speaker 2: stop continuing to try. But you also got to find
39:06
Speaker 2: you got to find success where it is because you
39:08
Speaker 2: have a lot of it.
39:09
Speaker 3: Right.
39:10
Speaker 2: Every single person has wins every single day. But we,
39:14
Speaker 2: especially nowadays, we're choosing to find the losses, right, We're
39:18
Speaker 2: choosing to focus on them. So I don't say recalibrate
39:22
Speaker 2: your I don't wouldn't suggest anyone to recalibrate their goals
39:25
Speaker 2: or lower their standards or lower their aspirations are but
39:29
Speaker 2: find ways to be, you know, to be happy with
39:33
Speaker 2: what you've gotten and what you have been given. And yeah,
39:38
Speaker 2: so I came in second on all those things and
39:40
Speaker 2: I find it, I mean, I find it funny. But look,
39:42
Speaker 2: twenty three years later after my first appearance on TV,
39:46
Speaker 2: I'm still able to make a career out of it.
39:48
Speaker 2: I'm still able to talk about the things that I
39:51
Speaker 2: want to talk about. And and that's and people still knowing, which,
39:57
Speaker 2: ye is weird still, but it's the thing.
40:00
Speaker 3: And so you just have I mean, I didn't go
40:05
Speaker 3: come winning.
40:05
Speaker 2: Idol, outside of having my face on the opening credits
40:10
Speaker 2: for a few seasons afterwards, would.
40:12
Speaker 3: Have been no different for me.
40:14
Speaker 2: Than than coming in second. In fact, I got to
40:16
Speaker 2: sell just as many, if not more than most people
40:20
Speaker 2: who've been on the show.
40:21
Speaker 3: So you just I.
40:23
Speaker 2: Think we've got to we've got to focus on the
40:25
Speaker 2: things that the wins that we have every day, and
40:29
Speaker 2: you may not you you only don't see them because
40:32
Speaker 2: you're not choosing to look for them. And they may
40:35
Speaker 2: not be the may not be the biggest win every day,
40:38
Speaker 2: but there's one, there's some there's one there every single day.
40:41
Speaker 2: And if you go to bed happy about that, you'll
40:45
Speaker 2: you'll wake up happier the next day too.
40:48
Speaker 1: Such great advice from Quaig. And I have one final
40:51
Speaker 1: question for you before we let you go, and this
40:53
Speaker 1: is a weird one, so I apologize. But what does
40:57
Speaker 1: no such thing? What do does pop culture smell like?
41:01
Speaker 1: To you?
41:02
Speaker 3: Hush?
41:03
Speaker 2: How many people say that what does pop culture smell like?
41:09
Speaker 3: To me? You're right, it is weird. I was wrong.
41:11
Speaker 3: There are.
41:13
Speaker 2: Pop culture Okay. When I hear well, maybe it's because
41:16
Speaker 2: I mentioned bubble gum pop earlier, I think it's I
41:19
Speaker 2: think it smells like a little bit like bubble gum
41:21
Speaker 2: mixed with popcorn. Think, well, I'm thinking. I'm thinking, like,
41:25
Speaker 2: what is the movie theater smell like? But not the
41:28
Speaker 2: ones where they haven't cleaned the bathrooms, you know, some
41:30
Speaker 2: of them do smell You smell that popcorn and and
41:34
Speaker 2: a little bit of bubble gum.
41:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't don't.
41:39
Speaker 2: Don't quote me on it because I could be wrong,
41:41
Speaker 2: But I also don't think you're gonna be able to
41:42
Speaker 2: scientifically prove me wrong either.
41:44
Speaker 3: So exactly with bubblegum and popcorn.
41:48
Speaker 1: What a winning combo. Thank you so much, Klaike, And
41:51
Speaker 1: you're just the coolest guy in the world. I'm such
41:53
Speaker 1: a big fan and I'm just feel so honored to
41:55
Speaker 1: be able to speak with you today. Thank you so
41:56
Speaker 1: much for your time.
41:57
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
42:27
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and to forget Follow us on Instagram at
42:30
Speaker 1: I Am all In podcast and email us at Gilmore
42:34
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com.