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“American Idol” judge Simon Cowell speaks out on Season 7 Of American IDOL.

When Simon Cowell was asked to comment on Britney Spears’ career he offered what sounded like sincere advice.

He said Spears, whose display of erratic behavior had become fodder for the paparazzi, only has to appreciate the good things in her life so she could get her career back on track.

But on the subject of Idols who fell out of favor with their record labels and the public, Cowell reverted to one of his unsparingly blunt but spot-on assessments: “It’s how the music business is—horribly unpredictable.”

It must be agonizing for the judges to sit through bad performances in the early episodes of each season. Is it all worth it at the end?

Yes, it is worthwhile. Is it fun doing it? No. Amazing how, this time around, even after six seasons, we still got shockingly bad people who believe they’re right and I’m wrong. They even got more argumentative. But if the audition process were sanitized, “Idol” would be boring. So, it’s fun to watch, but a torture for me.

Seven Idols are up for Grammys this year. But you also have winners Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard who’ve just been dropped by their label.

I’ve run a record label for 25 years and the one thing I know about the music business is, it’s horribly unpredictable. We are a reality show; what happens at the end is also reality.

Have there been contestants who stood out for you in any of the auditions, good or bad?

I can’t remember anyone particularly, but that applies to every city. The only one who can remember everything, amazingly, is Paula, who [seems to have] a photographic memory for these things.

Producers felt they made a mistake when the mentoring talent overshadowed the contestants. How do they plan to address that this season?

I sort of understand what they were saying. When you run a 90-minute, even a two-hour show on “American Idol,” you actually haven’t got a huge amount of airtime to do an awful lot of stuff with.
For instance, what do you know about the girl who won last year other than the fact she’s a good singer? I couldn’t tell you myself—and I was a judge on the show! I think this year there will be more focus on the contestants and less focus on the mentor.

What other changes will viewers see this year?

Ninety percent of what happened on the show last year was very good. I’ve always said it’s a very well-produced show. But we are completely and utterly reliant on who walks in the door in terms of the quality of the contestants. Most of our focus this year is to make sure we get a better, more interesting, Top 12 than last year’s.

They also tried having people play instruments, which wasn’t a good thing or a bad thing. On a show like “Idol,” I don’t think you want to make changes just for the sake of change. The process should evolve. That’s what you’re going to see.

What is your professional opinion on the sales of Jordin Sparks’ and Blake Lewis’ first albums?

I’m naturally disappointed that they didn’t sell more albums, or that neither artist has caught on fire. You want something like a Carrie Underwood, a Chris Daughtry or a Kelly Clarkson competing with the Mariahs and everybody else. It didn’t happen.

You literally have to give the public what they want, and the public decided this year it wasn’t what they wanted.

Do you have any personal favorites this year? You don’t have to name them.

I’m not going to name any names because I always get into trouble for doing that. I can’t call out a winner at this stage but I have an idea who could make the finals.

Do you have any advice for Britney Spears? Is it too late for her to make a comeback? It’s never too late. I think she’s the most searched artist on the Internet in the world at the moment, so she has a head start. If I sat down with Britney, I would, No. 1, remind her of all the good things in her life—her kids, her money, her success—everything.

Then I’d take her out to where she’s living at the moment and ask her to live normally with her family for six months. If you can live normally and do normal things, you’ll suddenly find that the paparazzi aren’t camped outside your door every day. Most importantly… [she needs] a sense of perspective because, at the moment, she’s out of control and she needs someone… to listen to. She’s welcome to call me anytime.

How can you keep “Idol” fresh, since it’s in Season 7 now?

[We the judges] remember that [this is] a reality show. [We] don’t take it too seriously [or try to] be politically correct and say what [we] hope people at home are thinking. We never go into any season with a master plan. We try to make it fun.

We know each other well enough, so we can argue with each other. Nothing is premeditated on this show.

The last time you came to Houston, which was a very long time ago…

It was a disaster. You have to agree with me on that one.

Is Houston still on the bottom of the list?

Absolutely not. I’d go back there in a heartbeat. It wasn’t great, but we had an enormous amount of fun. I always enjoy going to Texas.

Do you have an exit date from “Idol” planned for yourself? Would the show survive if you left?

The exit point [will be] determined by the public, which eventually is going to get sick to death of me, if it hasn’t already. I’ve always thought I’d go up until the end of my contract, which would mean two more seasons after this one. Nine years is enough to inflict on anyone. Can the show exist without me? Absolutely. It’ll probably get better.

How important is a contestant’s look?

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that first impressions weren’t important. I’m not a style expert, far from it. That’s why we have a lot of people on the show, toward the latter part, to help [the Idols] with their style and image and everything else.

If you try and sum up what star quality is, it is a sense of style, a sense of knowing who you are, a sense of being an individual and obviously having a good voice. Style is not the most important part, but it is one part of the package.

Fantasia Barrino’s (Season 3 winner) brother auditioned for this year. How good was he?

He was terrible. It was all fantastic until he started singing. I think we disputed the fact that he was Fantasia’s brother because he doesn’t have [any of] his sister’s talent.

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