Idol Review - Blogging American Idol 8

KC: Well, I’m glad you are! I’m glad you’re enjoying that. No, it’s really fun to go back and watch. It’s like going and looking at baby pictures for me. It’s embarrassing.

IR: A lot of times the judges are talking about song selection and how it’s so important on the show. What was your song selection process like, and how did you choose your songs.

KC: I didn’t do very good at that! I wish that I would have had a strategy, because I definitely did not. So, they come in the week before and they give you a list of songs and then they play maybe 20 songs that we can choose from and then you just pick one. And they’re like, “Okay pick one. You have like an hour.” And then you go in the studio and you break it down—find the right key, and then go out there and do it. It’s a crazy process.

IR: Were there songs, looking back, that you wish you would have sung, or songs that you wanted to sing that could never get cleared?

KC: It was so long ago, I have no idea. We were always asking for stuff and they were pretty much able to clear whatever they want. You know, they’re American Idol.

IR: How did you go about picking out your clothes? Were you given a stylist to work with?

KC: Well, before you get into the top 12 you’re on your own. When you get into the top 32, you still wear your own clothes and do your own hair and makeup and everything, but they kind of like, help you out. And they say like, “You’re not wearing that,” you know. Then when it gets down to the top 12 they give you a tiny budget, I don’t know if that’s changed, but we had a very small budget and we would go to the Beverly Center. It would be me, plus one of the other Idols, and our security guard and one of the stylists and just go in and out of the all the stores and try to find something that would fit the song and the genre of the week. A lot of times I mixed in my own stuff with stuff that I would buy. And then, for example, the dress that I wore for country week, the denim cropped dress—that was actually a full dress and they took it to the alterations place and I told them to chop off the middle of it. I was very thin at the time, wearing crop tops all the time—I don’t know who I thought I was. Anyway, literally, like an hour before I went I on I got it back.

IR: Wow.

KC: Yeah, I was like, ooh if this comes out bad I’m going to be out of luck.

IR: You guys all lived in a big house together in season 2. I don’t think they do that anymore.

KC: No they don’t. Because of season 2 they don’t!

IR: What happened?

KC: It was crazy. There’s 12 creative performers all living in a house. It was nuts. And, we were in the Hollywood Hills. I can’t believe I actually lived in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills. That’s crazy. But when you’re going through it you don’t even think that way. I wish I would have stepped back a few more times. But even though we’re in this I don’t know how many million-dollar mansion, they, of course, still put four of us girls in one room. Instead of spreading us out and being nice, they had to have the drama. So they put me, Trenyce, Kim Locke, and Julia all in one room, and we literally slept on cots. Yeah. I’m not kidding.

IR: A lot of times, it seems like stuff on the show is over-produced. I know that during your Hollywood week there was a lot of drama . . .

KC: It’s so funny, I mean, you know, you don’t think of it as a big deal and a big fight and crazy until everybody else makes it into this big crazy ordeal. So just during Hollywood week, the way it was edited is completely wrong. I’m not going to go into the story of how it all really went down, but it was crazy and totally over-dramatic. Julia and I wound up being really good friends and her sister and I laughed about it afterwards. There’s truth to everything that you see, because it is reality, but not a whole lot of truth.

IR: Well, this year they didn’t even do the group sing in Hollywood. That cut out a lot of the drama.

KC: Yeah, it did cut out a lot of the drama. I wish that we wouldn’t have had a group thing. It’s not because we can’t all work together, because we wound up all working together on tour amazingly. But we were all solo artists, and that’s why we’re on American Idol. We’re not on American Idol to form a group.

IR: Do you keep in touch with any of the contestants from your season?

KC: I keep in touch with a lot of the people from my season, but I’ve also been really lucky to have had like every other Idol you can imagine on our show, so I’ve become really good friends with a lot of the other Idols from other season. And Justin [Guarini], now is on our show and is one of my best friends at work and outside of work.

IR: Yeah, I saw him perform in a concert this summer and was able to meet him. He’s a very cool guy.

KC: He is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet in your entire life. He has a heart of gold.

IR: So, obviously, because of your [TV Guide] show, you watch all the performances. Do you have predictions for this season? Who are your early favorites?

KC: Obviously David Archuleta, is the front-runner as of right now—even with his little mess-up. He’s the obvious front-runner. But my prediction is David Cook or Carly Smithson.

IR: They’ve both been doing so well in the last few weeks.

KC: I know.

IR: Yeah, Carly’s performance[Come Together] last week was awesome.

KC: Oh, she’s just amazing. Everything she does, I can’t even stop talking about her. I love her so much. She’s just awesome.

IR: Would you go back on Idol to perform if they asked you back?

KC: Oh my God, who wouldn’t?

IR: So, how is working for TV Guide?

KC: It’s the best day-job in the whole world. While I’m working on all the other projects that I have in the works, it’s the best job in the entire world. I would probably be a waitress somewhere in Hollywood trying to record my album and right now I’m lucky enough to have this job so that I can pay the bills and then at the same time I can have exposure and still have experience.

IR: So speaking of other projects, how about your album. Do you know any details about when it’s coming out and what kind of music will be on it?

KC: Tell people to be patient, even though they’ve been so patient already! I feel so horrible, but I just really had focus on other things . And now, I am finally putting my foot down and allowing myself time to go into the studio and record my music. I’ve done a lot of recordings and I’ve been in the studio a lot over the last few years and it hasn’t been right yet. I want to get it right before I launch it out there. So, within the next week I’m going into the studio to record my own music that I wrote and that really means something to me. And the way that I can explain it is if you mixed Melissa Etheridge and The Judds. It’s real funky, it’s real sassy, very in your face. It’s cool.

IR: That’s exciting!

KC: I’m really excited about it. I’ve got a fire pit in my backyard and so [my sister and I] will go back there and just hang out and have a glass of wine and write what we’re feeling at the time. So whenever we go back to Texas, I sit on the coffee table just like when I was five and sing all these songs to my mom and my other little sisters—I have five. I tell them, “It’s exclusive, you can’t tell anybody about it.” And they will, behind my back, record me on their cell phones and so now, I’m their ring tone—of songs that haven’t even come out! I’m like, you little . . .

IR: You’ve had a couple roles on TV and in movies. Are you planning on doing anything else soon?

KC: I am, actually. I think my acting career is such a joke sometimes. I was asked to do Wrong Turn 2 and I was so excited about it and I got to fly to Vancouver all by myself with nobody to help me or tell me what to do, and it was a great experience. I got to do all the crazy, bloody make-up, I got a full prosthetic body, and got to do my own stunts. People ask, “Out of everything you’ve ever done, with the singing and hosting, etc., what’s one of your favorite things?” These were some of the best days of my life. It was so much fun. I guess just because it was totally out of my element. It was something like new and I really got to learn.

IR: What advice would you give to recent, either the season 6 or season 7 Idol contestants about how to use the show’s publicity to their best advantage, because you’ve done a really good job of it.

KC: Yes, I have! I use publicity all the time! I would say, and this is what I told Danny Noriega, who is now one of my favorite people in the whole world. He just texted me from the Rosie O’Donnell cruise.

IR: I know. I can’t wait to see the videos!

KC: He’s doing Tainted Love, and he’s very, very excited about it. I really liked him—I wanted him to be in the top 12. He was hysterical! I just told him, “From the moment you get kicked off that show, you better be out, getting jobs and doing what you have to do because people will completely forget about you if you don’t. Once you’re off American Idol, you do four days of press everywhere. So get the numbers, get the contacts, meet the people.” The day after I got kicked off American Idol I got a job as a host for Fox Sports. And then, right after tour, I got a job with TV Guide. And it’s just because I went out there and I really promoted myself. And if you don’t do it, nobody’s going to do it. You can’t think that people are just going to hand you things because this is Hollywood. You know people talk about how mean Simon Cowell is, but he’s not even close to as mean as a lot of the producers and the people who are judging you in Hollywood.

IR: And you’re also doing the Idol camp this summer?

KC: Yes, I’m doing the Idol camp and I’m very excited about it. And I always say I wish to God that there was an Idol camp before I went on that could just kind of prepare you for the whirlwind you’re going to be in. And I think that the kids who do this are going to have a great advantage over someone who doesn’t.

KC: Oh, and tell anyone who asks that I promise I’m going to have the album out soon. Tell them I said it specifically to them.