Director Wayne Isham is bragging on Cooks personality to his cameraman and other assembled crew members.
The man doth protest too much…and too politely, we might add.
But do nice guys always finish first?
My name gets announced [as the winner], and the girls justloseit.
Its painful to watch in that sense, because obviously I dont want to feel like Im upsetting anybody.
But these girls said something thats so funny, to me: How could they vote for that guy?
He doesnt even shave!
Because to me that encapsulated everything about people getting into the show.
They embraced the littlest things about each person.
I find that so interesting, from a sociological level.
The things that some people gravitate toward me for are the things that other people just shun.
Youve got to take it with a grain of salt.
But I love that everybody cares enough to have an opinion.
Loved, hated, but never ignored, I guess is how I look at it.
In a sense, its fun that that whole rivalry thing got created.
If you put me in the same sentence with David Archuleta, Ill be fine.
The fact that people responded the way they did is amazing.
The [winning by] 12 million votes thing still throws me.
I even conceded defeat that night to Archie.
I thought hed done amazingly.
I stood on the stage and watched all three of his songs and was in awe.
For a kid his age to do what hes done, my hats off to the kid.
I was trying to analyze why even I got unexpectedly caught up in that moment.
It was like, Yeah!
Stick it to the man with your Collective Soul ballad!
First off, I love Collective Soul, and I think its a great song.
It seemed like a fitting way to end my run as a competitor in that show.
And it came off really well.
Thats actually one of the two performances that I watched back after the finale.
It was night and day, man.
And, of course, its been pirated online.
But the actual CD must be a real collectors item.Yeah, its crazy.
My mom pointed it out to me.
A copy of it sold for two grand on eBay.
Thats about a grand more than I paid to make it.
And you were working on a second indie album when you went intoIdol?
What happened with that?I had completed a second one.
Neal [Tiemann], my guitar player, produced it.
But I started working on the second one with more of a clear [solo] intention in mind.
Actually, one of them, A Daily AntheM, did [get re-recorded for] the new record.
Im sure one way or another eventually [the rest of] those songs will be heard.
Making your first major-label album must have seemed like the best and worst of worlds, in a way.
I enjoyed touring and I enjoyed recording, and I hated having to rewire my brain between the two.
That was tough….But it helped that [producer] Rob Cavallo and I really hit it off.
And I was able to bring my guitar player aboard early.
To do what we did in this amount of time is no small feat.
We essentially put a years worth of work into three months.
It encompasses almost all of my range.
Its all over the place.
Thats Chris Cornell at his finest.
To me its like a rock history lesson put into about a four-minute lecture.
Its fun to play, but it is definitely an intimidating song.
The heaviest song on the album, by far, is Bar Ba Sol.
Its got some almost metal chords.Im a big fan of this band Injected, out of Atlanta.
We called them up and said, can we have a run at this song and see what happens?
What they sent us was a demo version, so we took the idea and ran with it.
Its heavy, but still a strong melody.
Was the title of Mr.
Sensitive meant to be ironic in any way?The song was unintentionally ironic.
I had the harmonic riff in my head for five months.
In my lyric journal, I had Mr. Sincere written down, and sincere turned into sensitive.
I wanted to write about something outside myself and get a little metaphorical.
He lives in a village devoid of feeling.
They get so afraid of this child who has feelings that they kill him.
It kind of took on this Tim Burton-like, twisted vision ofJames and the Giant Peachfor me.
But I know people look at me as that sensitive guy.
I didnt originally write it with the intention of it being about Adam.
I just wanted to write something that had a John Lennon, War Is Over quality.
You fit in with a style of rock singing thats popular right now.
Singing in smoky clubs for 10 years will give you a little bit of a rasp, for sure.
As I got more into it, I realized I could do more things with my voice.
Thats the kind of thing thats fun for me.
I just think this record is me, and if people want to compare it to Daughtry, awesome.
Hes sold a ton of records.
I just hope someday the coin will flip and somebody will compare somebody else to me.
I dont feel inherently that theres a justification for it.
But I still feel like that awkward musician; I think I always will.
I get that it could all go away.
I mean, fame is fleeting….But Im at peace.
More David Cook andAmerican Idol:David Cook visits Idolatry!
