Clay's Interview With Billy Bush A Keeper

Some interviews with Clay are really great, and then there are those that are not worth even listening to again. Clay's recent interview on The Billy Bush Show is a definite keeper!

You might remember that back when Clay was on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, Billy Bush was also on that show about that same time...
thus the picture at the beginning of this article! That's the first time I'd heard of Billy Bush, and the second time is in this interview. And for the most part it was a really good interview. You can listen to it at the above link to The Billy Bush Show and also download it at that site. In addition, there is an article with an exerpt from the interview at Access Hollywood. Unfortunately they decided to focus in this article on Billy's question to Clay about his sexuality. To Clay's credit, he knows how to answer these questions and keep them from pushing forward.

At the beginning of the interview, as Billy was asking Clay about his new CD, he stopped and stopped the interview and played On My Way Home. Also, a snippet of The Real Me was played before Billy asked Clay questions about this song.

Smittenwithclay at The Clayboard has typed up a transcript of the whole interview! Thank you! That took a lot of work. Here is that transcript:

Billy: you are listening to the Billy Busy Show and we are honored right now to have clay in the studio, Clay Aiken hello. Got the new album that were excited about
Clay: yes, yes were working overtime. Between that and the spamalot show so Im only waking up for you! Thats the only reason.
Billy: He's in spamalot on Broadway which has been a lot of fun, people were wondering could Clay pull this off and apparently you pulled it off beautifully.
Clay: well, thats what weve told the people to say at least.
Billy: now do you want to confess to people, you keep looking out of the corner of your eye, what your looking at
Clay: well you have tv in here and you hav the news on, and there is a bear running around the city apparently and people are chasing it and I just think thats facinating.
Billy: they are trying to trying to capture a bear in a community in New Jersey
Clay: and its the biggest news today apparently.
Billy: well no, the news today is you, well someone turn that darn tv off. Clay your new album you say is songs that relate to whats going on in your life in the last 5 years, its taken you 4 years since American idol, since Measure of a Man to come out with a new album thats all originals, why so long?
Clay: well um I mean, there are a lot of factors that play into that, we went into a christmas album right after the first album, and then the label kind of suggested that we do a themed album of love songs so, maybe it was my favorite thing to do and maybe it wasnt, Im leaning toward it wasnt, but I wanted to have songs that ya know, were mine verses same old thing.
Billy: It takes an artist a little time to assert themselves, your doing what they tell you to to.
Clay: yeah, especially cause..Im passive initially so it took myself a minute to convince myself that this is what I should be doing, and fortunately the label was very interested in letting us do it this time and um we found um weve been working on this album essentially for the last 4 years kind of, finding a song here or there and then saving it for the day we could finally do something and we ended up finding um, we had 5 songs in the bag to do and came across this song On My Way Here which kind of talks about,different things, experiences that people um, go through in their life or people that they meet, you know just the thing that make us who we are that kind of, makes us come into our own, and I thought..I thought the song was so great, the lyric content was so great that I said, you know what, lets scrap these other 5 songs all together and find songs that kind of relate to that, and make it an overarching theme.
Billy: How hard was it for you to deal with the lows, meaning the scrutiny about your personal life, more importantly your sexuality which wherever you go, it seems to follow you, and its one of those things, why do people care at all.
Clay: I really have no idea. I think at some point and it can be difficult, I mean especially initially and when you get into anything you really arent used to people scrutinizing this that and the other it bothers and after awhile you just start to say "forget this" you know, this is not who I am, this is not about me, what I want to do is be a singer, I want to be an entertainer and forget all that stuff.
Billy: Does it play to your advantage to sort of leave it as a mystery?
Clay: I dont know, does it play to my advantage(cute laugh) I dont know, maybe it does who knows.
Billy: lets try this, are you dating anyone? You sing love songs, have you found love yourself.
Clay:well I, I, I have said a number of times, some of the songs on the album are personal, some are not personal, some of them are universal and um I like to keep that and let people inerpret their way, you know there are songs on the album
Billy: the real me! the real me, track number 7. and were going to get to that, because you seem to be singing about someone who was there for you in a clutch time. A very special person..I going to try, Im going to try
Clay: You can try all you want
Billy: IM sure you will dance beautifully. Its also a great song, we are going to listen to the first single On My Way Here
Clay: Oh were gonna play the first single right? its On My way Here on the Billy Bush Show
Billy: by Clay Aiken
Clay: oh thats right
on my way here
Billy: Clay Aiken and his first single, On My Way Here really a beautiful, beautiful song
Clay: Well thank you very much
Billy: and Ryan Tedder again, from one republic
Clay: thats right dont give me to much credit for it, I just sang it.
Billy: but, uh..you felt it..why that song
Clay: just the fact that uh, I talked about it uh a lot of times that whether it be my relationship with my biological father or my sister who committed suicide when I was um a few years ago, you know just a number of things that Ive gone through in life that kind of, makes you who you are...had I had a blessed a favored life, I think that people who live like that really dont learn much about yourself and you learn more about yourself and you become a better person based on the experience you go through and that song says that I mean, thats exactly what it says, and Ive been very lucky with a lot of things,and um so Im very fortunate for idol and for anything thats happened beyond and even before, and the song kind of talks about that, it makes you who you are, so.
Billy: The Real Me is an interesting track, you said "I want people to..ah Clay.. you said, I want people to take a song
Clay: well because I know exactly where your going Mr Billy Bush
Billy: No, Im not, lets play the beginning part, lets just..give me the beginning, this is not the first single, but it may be the second, lets hear it.
alright Clay, the real me, listen to these words, and I think it suggests some pain here.
The Real Me Plays
Billy: alright, now..how much will they take before Im empty..its about picking away at inner Clay.
Clay: No its a beautiful song and the story behind it..
Billy: It is
Clay: I didnt write the song, I say a lot of the stuff..a lot of
Billy: you dont need to tell people that
Clay: No well,I do cause I didnt write it..the point is that you sing songs that you think will affect other people as well, the first time I heard this song, you know its not..its one of the songs on the album that has been released before, and so we put it on, its not completely original to me, it has been released before, its actually a christian song. its written by a Christian Artist named Natalie Grant. Who just won the Dove Award for best female vocalist, a night or 2 ago. Phenomonal singer and the song Im sure is very personal to her, and when I listened to it the first time, actually I listened to it.
Billy: why did it connect to you?
Clay: well I heard it definitely, I still hear it, and I hate to say things like this cause I like people to be able to interpret songs the way they want to. To me it is, I hear the religious um, you know its a song to God. You see the real me, versus some people who will listen to it and think its their brother or their mother, their best friend or their lover you know what I mean. It needs to be interprable, to me, yeah there are definitely things that, there are things that um that I connect with, the second verse says " Painted on, life is behind a mask, self inflicted circus clown" you know obviously there are things that I think people assume, you know. I constantly meet people who, they think they know who I am because of idol. Oh your that sweet little boy from North Carolina who taught kids with dissabilities, and I say yeah thats the case, but I can sometimes become a..sometimes to, so its amazing what people will um, assume just cause they think they know you, and thats not neccessarily the case, Im not different, I mean I dont portray myself to be different then I am, but you know, I have friends who are in similer positions to me, in the industry and Ive talked to them a number of times, about how its interesting when you meet people they think they know who you are, and they find out your not as cool as you were on tv and they dont want to talk to you anymore.
Billy: in studio with Clay Aiken here celebrating his new album and listening to some songs here. Clay a couple of quick questions, do women still hurl their panties up onstage?
Clay: (cute laugh)um you know, it took a break after idol for awhile and we havent had that thankfully in spamalot because that could be quite dangerous to the rest of the cast. The last time it happened, it happened at a christmas tour, like a full symphony show, I sang with the minnisota symphony for a christmas tour, beautiful, sentimental type show and someone threw their underwear up on stage and I dont quite get it
Billy: youve had I mean pairs, I mean that was recently. I mean, in the begining after idol
Clay:they used to attach checks to them which was pretty funny, they would attach checks to my foundation to the underwear, and weve had a few ladies who threw up depends that says "your older fans love you to" so, if you cant beat em.
Billy: you know, thats so..thats just great though. You know what the amazing thing is CLay, probably back in school you werent one of the most popular kids
Clay: What? not at all
Billy: but your first album goes over 600k copies in the first week, and you shoot to number 1 on the billboard charts faster then anyone ever has, and you know what..your wildly popular today. Back then I can almost see your mother saying "oh son, its going to happen your going to have" and most people would say that woman is crazy
Clay: well she wanted, well she wanted it more then I did to, I mean she always kind of said that thats what she wanted for me the most, she wanted me to be a singer and when I became a teacher she was like "oh ok"
Billy: sing son
Clay: but what about your, when are you gonna sing
Billy: you know what you deserve every bit of the success, and im so happy..this new album is fantastic folks, if your a Clay Aiken fan, and if your not check it out its really good stuff
Clay: please
Billy: thank you very much man
Clay: thank you
Billy: clay aiken, on the billy bush show