Clay Aiken Learns to 'Play Fair'

Clay Aiken Learns to 'Play Fair'
Wednesday Oct 20, 2004 6:00am EST
Clay Aiken wrapped up his solo tour this week, playing two concerts Monday to a screaming crowd at the North Carolina State Fair in his hometown of Raleigh. It's quite a new look at the fair for the "Invisible" singer, who admits that as a young boy he was too scared to get on the rides. "I was a very nervous child," he tells local paper The News & Observer. As he got to be a teen, his friends tried to persuade him to sing in the fair's karaoke booth, but he refused. "I was always so nervous. I didn't want to sing," he said. "I was always worried that someone was going to boo me." How times have changed. When tickets for his State Fair shows went on sale last month, they sold out in minutes (9 for the first show, 12 for the second, according to local CBS affiliate WRAL) – which is a good thing, since the American Idol runner-up was reportedly paid $100,000 for each show.