After personally checking in with Graham DeFranco, American Idol season 14 runner up Clark Beckham has the TEA regarding the Arthur Gunn finale disaster. The comeback contestant from season 18 was supposed to sing a duet with Sheryl Crow on the finale. There was even a photo online of Arthur and Sheryl taken at rehearsal before the show. But then, Sheryl takes the stage, and she’s duetting with Top 16 contestant Graham Defranco instead.
Arthur Gunn Cites “Personal Morals” for Ditching American Idol Finale
Arthur refused to come out of his trailer 5 minutes to showtime
Reports said Arthur dropped out extremely last minute. According to Clark, who spoke to Graham, Arthur refused to come out of his trailer FIVE MINUTES TO SHOWTIME. As reported earlier, Graham was literally pulled out of the audience to perform. But what’s crazier–THE PRODUCERS KNEW ARTHUR MIGHT BAIL and warned Graham days before to be ready to go!
Arthur is known to be difficult, so days before the finale, producers asked Graham to be ready
Now, if producers understood Arthur could bail, why did they invite him in the first place? Why did they invite him to compete in the Comeback competition KNOWING he’s trouble? It would have been easy to disqualify the winner AND the runner-up. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.
Here are highlights from Clark’s video. BUT DO watch the full clip below. You will not be surry you did.
- Arthur was supposed to sing with Sheryl Crow. Five minutes before they’re supposed to go on, he refused to come out of his trailer. Producers were at his door, begging him to come out.
- Arthur had “quite the reputation of being difficult to work with.” And get this, because of his reputation, the producers approached Graham DeFranco days ago and asked him to prepare in case Arthur bailed on them (!!!)
- On the day of the show, Graham doesn’t hear from the producers. He assumes that Arthur is good to go. Five minutes before they’re supposed to go on, a producer comes and grabs him, explaining that Arthur is holed up in his trailer.”We need you to sing with Sheryl Crow.”
- Graham didn’t even have time for a wardrobe change. Assistants were pulling stuff like his phone and wallet out of his pockets.
- Apparently the contestants, the judges, the staff were laughing. Crazy.
- Clark notes that Graham’s reputation will skyrocket after this incident, while Arthur’s will take a huge hit. Word has a way of getting around in the industry.
- Clark also stresses that the American Idol staff–from the executive producers all the way down to the lowest level employee–are WONDERFUL to work with. He’d be a contestant again for FREE, it was such a great experience. Also as far as Arthur complaining in his Instagram post about “unpleasant environmental experiences,” Clark says American Idol is the best environment he’s ever worked in.
- “They’re really do care about the contestants,” Clark said of the American Idol producers. “I trust them with my life. I did, then I do now, I still have relationships with those people and I love and cherish all of them.”
The most EPIC Idol story of all time
