Chikezie, David Hernandez, Diana DeGarmo and Kimberley Locke could be heading to a city near you as part of the American Stars on Holiday tour. The show, directed by American Idol associate musical director Michael Orland, opens in Pittsburgh, PA on Saturday.
Richard Rushfield of the Los Angeles Times caught up with the Idols as they rehearsed for the tour:
Michael Orland: These guys have literally had five days of rehearsal for this whole thing. We’re going to New York on Friday to rehearse with the band, then Saturday morning we’re doing the CBS morning show. And then we get right on a plane to Pittsburgh and open Saturday night in. And Friday we’re going to be in the air all day, so its going to be crazy. But we’ll do it. That’s show biz. I love every second of it. We put on those shows at Idol every week, its like doing a full-blown concert every week, so this is the same thing.
The crew is rehearsing 40 songs for a 90 minute show, including intermission. “We’re literally singing every holiday song you could possibly think of,” says David Hernandez.
Rushfield interviewed each Idol separately, and here’s what each is up to:
- Chikezie started writing his album after the summer Idols tour finished, and he hopes to release it next year.
- Diana DeGarmo lives in Nashville and is writing and recording country music with producer John Rich (Gone Country, Nashville Star, Big & Rich).
- David Hernandez is performing at the Barcelona Club in Scottdale AZ. He’s also writing and recording, in NYC and elsewhere. He plans to audition for TV shows come pilot season in January.
- Kimberley Locke owns a restaurant in New York, has a Christmas album out on iTunes, and will embark on a fitness cruise this Spring.
After the tour, Orland will head right into the new season of Idol. About Hollywood Week, which he just finished at the Kodak, he says, “I definitely saw some incredible performers this week. They’re all numbers at this point, I don’t even remember names, but I definitely saw some incredible singers.”
About new judge, Kara DioGuardi Michael says, “I was waiting to see a clash between the two girls but they got along great.” And on the “meanness scale” Kara is “…leaning towards Simon for sure. But she’s really great. She adds a really interesting element.”
Videos at the LA Times feature the four rehearsing a version of “Mr. Sandman” that’s been transformed into “Mr. Santa” for the season. CHEESY! I’d totally see this show if it were coming to New England.
After the jump, watch another video, via Access Hollywood , of Chickezie, David, Diana and Kimberley rehearsing for the tour. Aw, Kimberley and Clay Aiken are no longer friends…
Video after the JUMP…
Wait, i missed why Kim and Clay aren’t friends amymore???!!!!!!! *sad*
I missed that, too, Duke - so sad :(
I thought I saw that Kimberly Caldwell was on this tour?
Ok, Duke, I finally found the bit about Clay and KL - click on MJ’s link to the Access Hollywood video. There’s a brief mention of it, though no details.
Diana looks great! So grown up now.
I actually really like this group of Idols and would go if it was coming anywhere near me! It looks like it will be cheesy fun at least.
Poor Diana, I’m friends with her on Myspace and read a bulletin of hers from a few days ago. Apparently she’s so sick with tonsilitis that her neck is swollen (so she’s calling herself “Franken-neck”) and was in the ER a few nights ago. She wasn’t allowed to fly back to Nashville earlier in the week for one of her shows due to this. Hopefully she’s back in fighting form for Saturday.
MJ, the article says these 4 are going to be on The Early Show on Saturday. Can you cap please?
What was posted on that other link was one fan’s interpretation of what happened between Kim Locke and Clay, and not factual.
It’s not true that neither Ruben or Clay knew anything about this tour that Kim’s manager mentioned to the media.
Ruben, Kim, and Clay were discussing doing a tour together. Kim and Ruben were in favor of it, but Clay said he had to think about it.
After time passed, I think it was Kim’s manager who told someone in the media that the tour was in the works.
Clay got angry (and Claymates flipped out) and he blogged on his official fan club (which of course is not private since it was soon re-printed everywhere) and had some snotty comments to make towards Kim.
She was hurt and she responded in her own blog. She said that Clay had refused to answer her calls and hadn’t called her back, to talk about the tour.
Claymates then raked Kim over the coals on their boards and had no mercy for her. They didn’t see that Clay had done anything wrong.
Later when Kim was interviewed by Perez, he asked her about it, and she said that she guessed that she and Clay weren’t really friends anymore.
However, after he came out, he made some nice comments about her publicly. So maybe he wants to make up.
The Claymates’ version will be totally different than mine of course.
Oceana, how about a source for your interpretation of the events? Are you Kimberley Locke’s publicist, manager, or hold some other position on her team? Were you present at the meeting where the discussion about the tour supposedly took place?
The answer is no, no, and no. You are just spinning things to make Kimberley look better.
She tried to force Clay’s hand by announcing the tour that never was, and it backfired. In the process, she lost whatever fans she still had among Clay’s fanbase, and her sales numbers prove it.
And anyone who thinks that Clay’s latest comments about Kimberley were nice needs their sarcasm meter adjusted. She betrayed his confidence, and he knows it.
The fact that she discussed Clay with Perez shows me what kind of person she is. I never liked her and I’m not a Claymate. I don’t need anyone who wasn’t privvy to what went down to interpret what happened between them, I have eyes and ears of my own. Kim shows herself to be Kim’s biggest fan with no class and no loyalty to anyone but Kim. She’ll shamelessly show up at Spamalot to get attention. She’ll use Ruben too if gets a chance because in all of her interviews for over 5 years she has never failed to mention one or both of them.
In today’s interview with the observer-reporter
I foresee the day when she won’t be able to count Ruben as a friend either.
From what I recall Kim mentioned the tour, Clay’s fans freaked out, and instead of being tactful about it Clay decided to appease the old biddy fans by acting as appalled by the idea as they were. That’s the very definition of a backstabber.
Kim did an interview with Perez (she’s popular in the gay community) and he ASKED her questions about Clay. She was very tactful and didn’t even remotely come close to outing him, which was exactly what Perez wanted. Kim can be a diva but so can Clay and he only reacted the way he did about the tour because he wanted to appease his crazy fans.
“Clay decided to appease the old biddy fans by acting as appalled by the idea as they were”
What makes you think that he wasn’t? What, exactly, does Kimberley Locke have to offer to a successful performer who has been touring the country for several years now? Her CD and concert sales are pitiful compared to Clay’s, and since his coat tails are no longer available, Kimberley’s career has been reduced to singing in small clubs and prancing in her underwear on cruise ships. It was extremely presumptuous of her to think that she is in any way qualified to have an equal billing on tour.
And don’t even start about the Perez interview. A real Clay’s friend wouldn’t have been caught dead within 100 miles of that gossip monger. Besides, even Kimberley is not stupid enough to out Clay on the record, where everyone would know what she did. That would have killed any good will she still had left among Clay’s fans.