The American Idol Tour....Part 1

How to describe that summer? That’s a hard one so I have to do it in two parts. Part one will be personal to me and part two will reflect what ClayNation went through. After the first concert in St. Paul, MN, we heard that a fan got video. We waited up most of the night to watch it. It was possibly two minutes long, in three parts, and it was sideways. We didn’t care. It was Clay. He sang a song called ‘Invisible’. It rocked. It was completely different Clay than any of us had seen. He wasn’t ballad-boy any more, he was Rock!Star!Clay! A lot of us watched that video with our heads cricked to the side and some turned their monitors on their side to watch. That video made me want to see Clay. You see, I had not bought a ticket in the spring, when they went on sale. I hadn’t been to a concert in 20 years. But that video. Oh, my God, that video! It made me want to see Clay in person. Really, really badly.

The very first video of Clay in concert, the three parts strung together. The very first piece of Clack. The 'OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! What WAS that move?' Watch the smile on his face after the song is over. It's priceless.



All the fans on the boards reported their concert recaps back to the message boards. As each performance was written about, each Clay sighting drooled over, the excitement kept building and building and building on the boards. We all wanted to see Clay in person. Remember, before this, we only saw him on our TV sets; now we got the chance to see him live. The guy that I invited into my living room for 14 weeks, twice each week. I loved him, I adored him, he had the best voice I had ever heard and he was so freaking cute!

As the tour progressed, the recaps got better and better and better. Two days before the Wilkes-Barre concert on 07/16/03, I casually logged onto TicketMaster.

Ticketmaster. I had never bought a ticket on-line before. This was a new experience. I was learning all sorts of new things because of Clay. What I’ve learned from Clay, so far:

• How to navigate a message board
• How to save pictures
• How to download media players
• How to download video
• How to use PayPal
• How to shop e-bay

Well, TicketMaster came through for me. I scored two second row tickets. So I took a friend and prepared for the concert.

This is my very first re-cap from my very first time seeing Clay in concert in Wilkes-Barre, PA., July 17, 2003. I was what the fandom considers an ‘angel-winger’ at the time, so the post is a bit ‘gushy’ or ‘fan-girly’, if you will.


OK, we left at 5:00 and thought it would take 1-1/2 hours, but we took the long way and we got there at 7:30. Line moved pretty quickly to get in the venue. Headed straight towards the bathroom, then to buy a program and a t-shirt. Got down to our seats just as they turned the lights off. The show started about 2 minutes later.

Charles Grigsby was amazing. He was so good and very personable and the crowd loved him. I made eye contact with him several time and we waved at each other.

Actually I made eye-contact with Charles, Ricky, Trenyce several times, and Julia, and I think, Clay, but he was looking all around!

Julia rose from understage and did excellent on 'Beautiful'. Ricky really worked the crown, got us clapping and dancing. Carmen worked the crowd, did well, (had some kick-a$$ shoes) but she doesn't have the charisma that Charlie had. She looked awesome, though. Kim Caldwell did OK. Trenyce knocked it out of the ballpark with Proud Mary.

Kim Locke was incredible! What a voice! The audience loved her! After she was finished she said something like, "you know what's next" and the audience just erupted!

Clay (be still my heart) rose from the floor to do TITN and the crowd went wild! That's when the audience rose to their feet and this tidal wave of noise just reverberated in the building! I had my red glowstick, but since I was in the second row, I didn't see very many.



Listen to the crowd. It was freaking amazxing, the emotion in that room, that night!





After seeing Clay, the rest of the concert went by in a haze. I know I was dancing and clapping and yelling, pumping my fist.

Then Clay talked a little bit, but it was hard to understand him with the crowd screaming and the sound system. Then he introduced Ruben singing Superstar.

Ruben sounded GREAT! I was very happy with the ovation and the yelling for Ruben, he really deserved it. Then they took a 20 minute intermission.

I had noticed there were 2 security guys sitting RIGHT in front of me and I was scared to throw the panties for fear I'd get kicked out, so during intermission, I went up to this bald (and really cute) security guy and said, "Look, there's this bet on Clay's message board about throwing panties and I was dared. I have this beany baby with the panties attached and a check made out to Clay's charity, could I throw them without getting into trouble?" He said, "You have to check with the guys in the suit jackets. They're Clay's personal security".

So I waited all intermission, but it seemed like Clay's personal security (I love saying that) were backstage with Clay. Just at the end of the intermission (about 5-8 minutes left), I see the bald security guy talking to Clay's personal security guy and pointing at me!

So Clay's personal security guy comes over and I tell him, "Look, there's this bet about throwing panties at Clay and since I'm no longer young and good-looking, I attached a check made out to Clay's charity. Could I toss it to him?" The security guy takes the bear, undies and check and looks at the check and says to me, "Stay right there" and leaves. He comes back about 5 minutes later and says, "Here, take these and at the end of the concert go where the security guards tell you".

YES! I got backstage passes!

OMG OMG OMG! I surprised myself and didn't flip out! I calmly put them in my purse and zippered it up and went back to enjoy the show!

They did a lot of group numbers, the Lady is a Tramp/Bootylicious was cute, the BeeGees were awesome. Clay sang To Love Somebody and he was wow, really, really good! Then some more group numbers until "Can you Feel the Love tonight. I think Clay really felt the love in that auditorium!

Then some more group numbers.

Now, the panty throwing part. I saw one pair fly from about the middle of the stage. Clay looked and giggled. Then, while he was singing, I saw about 3 or 4 more go flying. Clay's personal security had this VERY stone-faced look and started walking towards the middle, but I guess he saw that they were harmless.

Watch Clay singing 'Invisible' and be sure to listen to his audience banter!



After the song was over, Clay picked up one pair and looked at them and started giggling like a banshee! Then he looked around the floor and saw the rest and that's when he said, "I have more panties up here then you do in your drawers"! Then he picked up the Depends and carried that around for a while.

Ladies, He LOVED, absolutely LOVED the panties!

Then Ruben sang his new song and it had a good beat (Hey, I'm on Dick Clark's American Bandstand!). The crowd was into it, but no where near the way they were for Clay. The he did Flying Without Wings and got a really good response. He sounded great! He really is a good singer

Kim sang Somewhere over the Rainbow and blew the roof off the place!

Clay did Invisible and I knew all the words and was singing right along with him. It seemed a little slower than the video we all saw, he did move around the stage, but not as much as in the video. He wore a button down shirt (I think), no jersey. The crowd went CRAZY!

Then they did Imagine and GBTUSA. Clay got his 'yammy' face on during the song. During both Imagine and GBTUSA, he just held his mike down and looked out at the crowd with said yammy face and just sucked it all in! I really think he had not yet processed all the love that is out there for him!

After the show, they had about 50 of us and sent us to this room. Ricky, Charles, Kim, Kim, Julia came in a signed some autographs.

Then Clay came in. Here's the pisser part. His security only let him stay for about 3-1/2 minutes. They asked all the kids to get in front of the table and he signed autographs for them and some older people, but then they whisked him out! I was about 2 feet away and got some really good pics of him close up.



Gush part. He has the most gorgeous skin I've ever seen. It's luminous! I could see all his freckles and let me tell you, if I could have kissed everyone of them, I'd still be there! I still can't get over how beautiful his facial skin is. We did make eye contact and he smiled at me, but that's all, no Clay up close and personal for me, he only did that for the kids. I was REALLY hoping he would say something like "Where's the lady who wrote the check", but he didn't.

However, since that check went backstage to him, he does have my name, my address, and my telephone number (and my checking account number). So I console myself that he took the check off the panties and put it in his wallet to give to his Mom. Or maybe he just gave it to his 'people' to handle, but I prefer to think that my check is in his pants pocket!

I'm expecting a phone call or a nice thank you note! After all he does have my name, my address, and my phone number!

It's so nice to say that Clay has my name, my address and my phone number!

Clay has my phone number! WooHOO!

It was a great evening. You guys that are going, just have a BLAST!

I took 4 rolls of pics, but I have to get them developed so it will be a few days before I can post them. I don't know how to do it, someone tell me! I will have them put on a CD so I need help from there! And I got about 4 of Clay from 2 feet away, but I was using 800 speed film, so they may be blurry.

That's all, folks. I hope you enjoyed my story!

What I wrote that summer couldn’t capture the mood in the venues just before Clay made his first appearance. As the finalists sang their songs, one after the other, the anticipation for Clay kept growing and growing. The applause would get a little louder, our feet started to stamp on the floor a little longer, the air was filled with electricity. Once Kim Locke finished her song, the audience was about to jump out of their skin. The screams erupted, the yelling was so loud that you couldn’t hear yourself think. Then the music started. Up rose Clay on a lift from underneath the floor as the opening strains to ‘This is the Night’ began. The moment of actually seeing Clay live was an emotional experience for a lot of us. For some, it was just fun, but never in my life have I experienced anything like that. Ever. It was freaking amazing. Wonderful. Crazy. Joyous. Unreal. That first glimpse, the first time ever I saw his face, live, is indelibly etched in my mind and I feel so fortunate to have participated in the very beginning of the Clay phenomenon.

Stay tuned……………..



Related Tags: Clay Aiken, American Idol, Ruben Studdard, Kim Locke, Invisible, This is the Night, Clack, TicketMaster, PayPal, The Bubel-Aiken Foundation