....as the tour ends

As the Tour wound down and the cast made their way towards California and the last concert, I didn’t know when I would see Clay again. I was used to seeing him every single day through the eyes of the fandom and when he had a day off, we still knew basically where he was. Most of his days off, he spent going to children’s camps, visiting schools, and he even went to Washington, D.C to give a speech and meet with some politicians.

Here is what I wrote at the end of the Tour:

As the Tour ends.....

Clay, your AI Tour is coming to an end on Sunday night. It will probably be the last time you will ever perform with all the finalists, sans Josh, of American Idol 2, all at the same time. It will be a bittersweet moment for you. I ask that you do these two things for yourself.

Take a long, hard look back at how it all began:


Last September, you were just starting your Senior year at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. You probably had NO idea that you would ever audition for AI, much less get picked. You were taking classes and working with the Bubel's, going and getting along with your life.


Then Diane Bubel started to nag you, and nag you, and nag you (God Bless you, Diane Bubel). To shut her up, you agreed to audition and you didn't get picked, so you drove to Atlanta and auditioned, and lo and behold, you got picked! Nigel said he was looking for a personality, you thought you didn't have one yet. What you did have was that magnificent voice. Even Simon couldn't deny that and they decided to send you to Hollywood.


Once there, you practiced and rehearsed, Remember when your group was chosen to go through to the Top 32? Remember the look of utter delight on your face? I do. And it was magical. Then came the results of the infamous Group 2. The top three were you, Ruben, and Kim. Ruben and Kim were chosen, you ended up going home. You
thought your AI experience was over. But you were called back for the Wildcard show. What a performance you gave. The perfect song for the perfect guy. And when Ryan read the results of the popular vote, you sat there, wearing your yammy face for the 10 or so seconds it took Ryan to spit out your name, then you leaned over, and your yammy face became even yammier, if that's a word. And we loved you for it.

Now the competition started in earnest. Each week you came out and you sang your face off. Each week you got more and more votes, each week you got more and more fan mail and STILL, you wore your yammy face every Wednesday night, both for you staying in the competition and for your friends that got voted off. And we loved you for it. I'm not going to run through every song, just a highlight or two.

Neil Sedaka night. The night, you absolutely showed the world that you were no longer a contestant, but a star. That night, YOU became the star of AI, not Simon Cowell. That night, you transcended American Idol.

BeeGees night, you rocked, and even if the judges didn't like 'Grease', your fans LOVED it! We got it. We appreciated it (more to come on that).

Clay's vocals on 'Grease' were spot-on, and even though the judges didn't care for the hip shake, his fans sure did. I'm dying to know what Clay was going to say to Simon after his critique, but Ryan interrupted and we'll never know.



'To Love Somebody' is a well-loved favorite of the Clay Nation.



The Vincident, how you missed your cue and forgot a few words, how well you covered it up, the look on your face for a nano-second before jumping right back into the song, then coming back with the ultimate lounge lizard song and nailing it to perfection. Sheer nirvana.

Clay talks about the missed cue in the song 'Vincent'



Clay kills the audience with 'Mack the Knife'. He out-Bobby Darined, Bobby Darin.




Then came the Finale night. How could you top yourself? You walked out on that stage with so much self confidence, even though you may have been a tad bit nervous inside, you walked past the gospel choir, strolled up to the mike as if it were just another day at the office, and you blew us away! You. Blew. Us. Away.


The next evening is an evening I will never forget. The grace, dignity, and class that you showed on that cheesy TV show is imprinted in my heart forever. Although you may have been crying inside, you showed the world how to act in the face of adversity. You showed us the true measure of a man. And we loved you for it.

Then you did the rounds of TV, radio, and print interviews, and you revealed more about yourself than we learned on AI. We started to like you more and more, we appreciated your sense of humor, your intelligence, your wit, your gabbiness. You never shut up, do you? And your compassion for others? Did I mention how that just slays me? It gets me right in the heart every time. And we love you for it.

We followed you around on the internet, I think we knew where you were before you did. We followed every interview, every utterance, every expression. Because we love you. June 10th rolled around and we bought up as many CD's as we could afford and we watched you go gold, then platinum.

Then the AI Tour started. Yes, again, we followed you around the country, every show, every city, every performance, every word you uttered on stage, we knew about. We brought in signs, cameras, video cameras, homemade tee shirts, red panties, gifts, donations, some of us got coveted backstage passes. Most didn't. Everything we saw and heard pointed out that the AI Tour fast became The Clay Tour. And you delivered, you delivered 110%. From rising up through the floor for This is The Night, to the group numbers (yes, you CAN dance!), to your solos, culminating with the indescribable Invisible, where you gave us clutches, tugs, yanks and hips (thank you, Grease)! Yes, you finally learned how to do the Grease hip shake without being self-conscious. And we loved you for it! We have every performance of Invisible downloaded from every city in every state that you performed in. It eats up our hard drive memory, but we don't care, we love you for it.

Now that the tour is winding down, I will ask you to look ahead, though this will be a lot shorter because no one can predict the future:

For the next six weeks, you are going to be extremely busy with Jerry Lewis, to TRL, to promotional appearances, to the late night talk shows, to Miss America, to, dare we say it, a video of anything?, all culminating on October 14, 2003, the release date of your first full-length CD. Hopefully, your face will be plastered all over the place. You've expressed some doubts as to the sales of your CD. Clay, let me tell you this, just as we watched your single go gold, then platinum, we will also watch your CD go gold, then platinum, then multi-platinum. We have doubted RCA more than once, but we don't doubt you. We don't doubt that you will give us the very best of yourself and we will love you for it. Clay, we've got your back.

Oh, did I forget to mention one minor thing? It's just a little thing. Did I forget to mention The Bubel-Aiken Foundation? Did I forget to mention that you kept your word from all those many months ago, that you wanted to make a difference, and it's not necessarily how you made the difference but you wanted to be sure that you did? THAT little thing? Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention what I consider THE most important thing you've done so far. Sorry! It must have been those hip shakes during Invisible... If no one else has said this to you, Clay, I will. Good job, Clay.

You are going to have a stellar career, Clay. You are going to fly high beyond your wildest dreams. We sincerely hope that you can finally get some rest. We sincerely hope that you find a way to meld your professional life with your private life, that you find love and happiness, that you have a wonderful wife and beautiful little babies. And we will love you, always and forever.

2006: As I look back over my Clay Adventures, I have to marvel at the career he's had, so far. It seems he found a way to meld his professional life with his personal life with his move out of LA and back home to Raleigh. It seems he has found a good balance between the public Clay and the private Clay and although he hasn't yet found love or had his babies, I think his future is so bright he'll be able to achieve anything he wants.


Related Tags: Clay Aiken, American Idol, Kim Locke, Ruben Studdard, The Bubel=Aiken Foundation, Neil Sedaka, The BeeGees, WRAL, Bobby Darin, Raleigh, NC