[ Biography ] [ Trivia ] [ Quotes ] [ Quotes About Him ] [ American Idol ]

• “I thought I wanted to be a pro baseball player, but my fastball wasn’t fast enough and I couldn’t hit to save my life.  Performing was the only thing I ever felt I was great at.”

• “Being able to make a 16,000-seat arena feel intimate is one of the trickiest things to pull off. If you can get the people in the nosebleed seats to feel as though they’re getting the same show as the people sitting front and center, then you’re doing something amazing. That’s always going to be my goal.“

• Q: If you had the chance to play a show with a group of musicians of your choice (living or dead), who would you choose to fill out a band?
  A: Vocals – me, because I’m a self-indulgent little shit… (Pre Idol – 2006)

• On when a new album is coming: “We started writing for one. We just finished sound-checking a new song. We’ll see if we can add that in soon. The goal is to get off this tour, analyze the last year and get working again. I’d guesstimate we’ll probably be in the studio in February or March, and get cracking on another one.”

• On filming the video for his single “Come Back To Me”: “I had a kissing scene. You watch stuff growing up, and I always thought I couldn’t imagine how uncomfortable that would be. Now I know! [Disturbia's Sarah Roemer] knew what she was doing. I kept apologizing the whole time.”

• The Declaration Tour: “Our audience is kind of a nice cross section — we get quite a few guys, we get some ladies, we get some kids. That’s cool. I like seeing that our music is being embraced by different types of people.”

• On being amused by some of the gifts he receives from fans, like a cooler filled with ice and QuikTrip Taquitos, his favorite food: “[I tried to ship it to his home in Tulsa, Okla.,] but by the time it got there, it was just a box of moldy food. I got a phone call from my mom asking, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”

American Idol

• On Andrew & the audition: “I really lucked out in that arena. He has been my No. 1 supporter from day one and has routinely told me how proud he is of me. I can’t wait to see what happens after this, and I can’t wait to hopefully help him out. And hopefully help him enjoy some of the fruits of my labor, since this is all his fault.”"The audition process was strange, you know. He really wanted me to audition with him, and I was just hesitant. Not for any negative association with the show, I just didn’t really see this as my path, for whatever reason. But 5:30 in the morning in Omaha, standing in line and it’s raining, the sun hasn’t come up. And a producer comes by with a camera and interviews my brother and then turns to me. I say, “I’m not auditioning.” And he says, “You are now.” Life has a weird way of working itself out sometimes.”"Oh, no, not at all. I just figured I’d go in and sing a song and they’d say I wasn’t what they were looking for, and I’d go back to Tulsa and work on my record some more. But apparently someone had another plan.”"He (Andrew) threatened to beat my ass if I didn’t (audition), so it’s entirely his fault that all this happened to me.”

• “I understand what the show encompasses — I just don’t think I chose to get wrapped up in it. For me, I didn’t want to just experience the experience, but enjoy the experience.”

• On how/what he changed over the course of the season: “You know, I didn’t really change much of anything, as strange as it is. I didn’t have any expectations as to what the show was going for do me, or what I was going to do for the show. I went into it as an opportunity to expose myself musically to a large audience. And so my confidence level never really wavered, and maybe that’s what got misinterpreted as cocky and arrogant. But I think maybe as the season went on, he saw the work I was putting in — not just to my own stuff — but really to make it a positive working environment for everybody.”

• On if he thought he was going to win: “You’ve got to hope for the best and prepare for the best, but expect the worst, and that’s pretty much how I operated. I made sure I was prepared to win, but Archie (Archuleta, Cook’s runner-up) did a great job. I definitely thought that if you based it off Tuesday, he deserved to win. He came out and did three amazing songs.”"I remember hearing that number and just (thinking), ‘My mom must have called 55 million times or something!’ Theatre of the absurd, I guess.”

• On winning Idol by 12 million votes: “Obviously within the bubble of Idol, it’s hard to get what’s going on. I thought Archie was actually a little ahead of me, if I’m being honest. There are a lot of conspiracy theories out there. I attribute the finale vote discrepancy to my fans just being awesome. I don’t really know how else to explain it. My hat’s off to Archie for the whole shebang. He’s just an amazing, amazing human being. I was honored to share the stage with him.”

• Does the perceived rivalry with David Archuleta grate on you? “It does a little and I am sure Archie would share my opinion. We both recognize we are completely different artists and so it is comparing apples and oranges. Even in the ‘Idol’ finals, we didn’t feel like we were competing against each other. Archie is a good person. I consider him a really good friend and wish him all the success he deserves.”

• On going from playing small bars and clubs to Idol: “You get pretty humble playing shows to five people. And having that experience made the Idol experience all the sweeter. To go from one extreme to another — you kind of appreciate the huge crowds and all that.”

• On if he would of been better off losing: “Obviously, the theory is there. And did it cross my mind at any point in the competition? I mean, sure, but only as an objective point. You don’t go into this with the idea that you don’t want to win. I think it’s a huge slap in the face to the thousands of people who auditioned this season and really wanted to win. And as far as having more success by not being a winner? That’s something that’ll get played out in the next couple years. Daughtry’s success is amazing. But right now, I’m not trying to be Daughtry, I’m just trying to put out a solid record. Even if it doesn’t do well commercially, as long as I can say I put out a record that I’m proud of — that’s the goal right now, and hopefully, if I can do that, the success will follow.”

• On how he saw himself change from start to the end: “This show has been great for my diet. I’ve lost probably 10 to 15 pounds. There was definitely a progression for me on this show. Early on, I’m talking third, fourth week in, Ken Leverne, our vocal coach, really hit home with me on a particular lesson: I put up a wall, kind of a protective barrier between me and the audience. It was a little bit of a defense mechanism to try to protect myself. He had to force me to break that down.Toward the end, I started crying a lot. There was a lot of intensity — as far as what was at stake and all the effort that had been put into it. The crying after I won was like an exhale. This whole experience has been about eight months, including the auditions. And I felt like that whole time I was holding my breath. And to be able to just breathe and enjoy the moment was amazing.”

• On wanting to be an “Idol” that makes an impact rather than just fizzles out: “Yeah, but I think it was an internal pressure. I set the bar pretty high for myself. I want to be right up there with Carrie, people like her and Kelly and Daughtry. They’ve managed to make tremendous careers for themselves.”

• Being on the road or on Idol? “I’d much rather be on the road. The “Idol” experience was great. It gave me a platform, but there is something a little unnerving about going on stage once a week and singing for your life in front of 30 million people.”

On ‘Analog Heart’:

• On the confusion surrounding Analog Heart during Idol: “Analog Heart got released independently in May 2006. I spent a good year playing and promoting that record as much as I could. A lot of people, thank God, bought the record. About midway through the season, I had to have the record pulled, obviously, for fairness issues on the show. And I got it pulled offline. But somebody, I have no idea who, reposted it on Amazon, so while that was going on, I was kind of at a loss. I talked to Amazon about getting it pulled, and there was a bunch of mass confusion about it. I’m extremely appreciative at how well it did. But I was kind of a pawn in that whole game.”

On his first album post Idol (self-titled):

• “I don’t see myself putting out a record of standards or anything like that. For now, I’ll probably end up putting out a rock record because I feel that’s the kind of music that I enjoy playing. But that was the exciting thing about the show — I loved knowing there were things I could do that people would never expect I could do. I’m going to try to recreate that energy within this record. I want people to feel they got taken on a trip from beginning to end. I’ve got my work cut out for me, but it should be fun.”

• “I went on Idol with a five-card hand and showed three of my cards. Now it’s time to put down the other two. There’s a lot I haven’t shown the world, just as far as who I am and what I’m about. I have several layers as an artist and those layers are out there on this record. I don’t see myself ever writing an autobiography; I’m just going to let the music speak for itself.”