One Year Ago This Week...Clay Was Riding High....

June 10, 2007, and Clay was riding high...on a horse that is! This time last year Clay made a grand entrance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on a horse to the surprise of everyone in the audience and those watching at home.

Jimmy introduced Clay in this way:

Our first guest tonight is one of the most intimidating figures in pop music; he's the head of the Claymates, one of the most dangerous and powerful music cartels in all the world, on July 4 he kicks off his Symphony Tour in Dallas, Texas. Please say hello to my best friend in the whole wide world...Clay Aiken!

And in comes Clay smiling, talking, and waving at the crowd! The crowd loved it! And Clay, in spite of having a bit of laringitus, was quite talkative that night.

Clay talked quite a bit about his UNICEF trip to Afghanistan and what his role is as an ambassador. We learned that he ate raisins and rice and lost 10 pounds while over there, about him growing a beard and wearing the native dress to fit in with the culture and then finding that no one over there was dressed like that! Jimmy showed some great pictures of Clay in Afghanistan.

After talking for several minutes, Jimmy mentioned that he just noticed something...that Clay appeared to be on a horse! After coming back from the commercial, Clay had gotten down off the horse and Jimmy and Clay continued a great interview, including discussion of a pin that was given to Jimmy which included the term "Climmel". Jimmy seemed to approve.

Next topic was Clay's symphony tour. Jimmy covered a lot of topics with Clay and it was definitely an appearance that Clay fans will never forget!

And, in case you have forgotten, Clay's appearance on JKL made it on AOL's "TV's Top 5" for June 10. In addition, it was voted the best of the clips for that day by AOL's readers.

If you'd like to see Clay's appearance on JKL, check out Parts 1 and 2 by samtaycai at YouTube:

JKL Part 1, 5/10/07
JKL Part 2, 5/10/07

Here's a 50 second video from Claym8t at Youtube to whet your appetite for more: