Tidbits 4/3

• Lycos 50 - Clay stayed at #15 this week, same as last week. Under his name at the Lycos 50 site, it says "Bearded", with 196 weeks in the Top 50. Way to go!!
• Coverage of Clay's new interview with People Magazine (read here):
• Reality TV World -

  Since he was the runner-up on Idol's second season, Aiken has been busy with his music career, so it's a bit surprising he's had any time to watch previous seasons of the Fox mega-hit that made him a household name. He's released three albums with the most recent, "A Thousand Different Ways," being released last September. However ten of his most recent album's 14 tracks were cover songs, making Aiken eager to return to the studio following a tour this summer.
  

• AOL TMZ -

  Clay Aiken tells People that this year's "American Idol" is the first one he hasn't watched religiously, and that the program is "a drug of some kind ... Like you think you can't live without it..." Not, as he points out, that he's ever done any drugs

• Chicago Tribune interviews founder of VoteForTheWorst.com, a website which encourages Idol viewers to vote for the worst singer -

  Q: And it’s not as though everyone who does win does as well as Kelly Clarkson or Clay Aiken. Winning is not a guarantee of anything.
  
  A: “No, it’s not, especially since 19 Entertainment, the record label [winners are signed to], they’re just horrible at promoting their artists. Kelly Clarkson … made her new album with a competent record label and became a megastar.”

• C-Ville - it's not only about winning American Idol -

  Sure, a handful of “Idol” runners-up like Clay Aiken and Jennifer Hudson had managed to find a modicum of success (it would be another 10 months before Hudson would win her Oscar). But the odds were that Daughtry would slip back into obscurity like the Justin Guarinis, Diana DeGarmos, and Constantine Maroulises of the world.

• PopMatters - Idol article ...

  Now, I see a lot of records getting ground out of this current cast - if Bucky Covington can score one (due April 17), then so can Chris Richardson. But I don’t see anyone with a white-hot future ahead of them, like many of us did with Carrie and Kelly Clarkson and Fantasia. Left-field successes like Clay Aiken or Daughtry? Those are even harder to predict, but do you see any possibilities?
  

• Toronto Star - not so nice mention of Clay in a Neil Sedaka article -

  That means couples who danced to Connie Francis doing "Stupid Cupid" in 1958 saw their children do the same to the Captain and Tennille with "Love Will Keep Us Together" in 1975 and watched their grandchildren sigh over Clay Aiken's recording of "Solitaire" in 2004.

• 411Mania - random Clay mention ... movie article: "Luckily for Elliot, he and the Devil are invisible – Clay Aiken would be proud"

• Southern Girl - blog about the People Mag interview.