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Chris Sligh - American Idol 

One of the Hot New American Idol Contestants is Greenville South Carolina’s Chris Sligh. Chris wrote about his American Idol experience on his blog http://americanidolmusing.blogspot.com/

Here are the best parts of his Audition Experience.

Congrats Chris Sligh, we hope you are the next American Idol and you have our votes!!

 

The Road to American Idol (Pt. 1) - August 20-22
Well, this is my third year of trying out for America’s favorite show - American Idol. I have a love-hate relationship with the show. I am disgusted mostly by the talent that makes it through on the show, but am fascinated by the stardom it creates. I keep telling myself that the shows sucks and to not care about it a bit, but the fascination continually draws me in.

As a singer, I am not what one thinks of as a great singer. I have a good voice and I have even better tone; but my voice is not overly-different, nor is it overly-elastic…I just sing and hit every pitch I come on in key and can stay on note. As a solo artist and now with my band, I get comments constantly on how refreshing it is to hear someone who can actually sing. I mean, I’ve won national awards for both singing and songwriting, so why the freak am I not a major label artist?

I have come to realize the answer is….IMAGE!!!

2 years ago, I drove all night down to Orlando, where I tried out for American Idol the first time. I got in line, waited, then found out I had to wait for another line the next day. SUCK!!! I got no sleep one night and then got 4 hours the next night and chose an N*Sync song…bad idea. I sucked pretty bad. But I did learn a little about the show…namely get sleep before trying to sing. Also, I learned that the show is NOT looking for the best singers.

In Orlando, I hung out with two black men the whole 2 days. I had brought my guitar along with me and they heard me playing and decided we should write songs together. So, I would make up a chord progression and they would make up songs over them. It was a lot of fun. However, these two guys had 2 of the best voices I’ve ever heard. I’m hard to impress simply because I’ve heard great voices and I know that I can sing, also, but these guys were out of this world. And neither one of them made it.

Last year, my wife and I decided to make AI a vacation. We drove up a couple of days before hand to Chicago, got a hotel, relaxed, hung out with some friends up there and showed up when I had to show up and that was it. I still didn’t get a ton of sleep, but hey I was okay. The problem this year was that the weather had said it would be sunny and 85 degrees. It ended up being rainy and 70 degrees, and we were in Soldier Field the windiest venue possible and it was freaking freezing. By the time I sang, I felt like an icycle, plus I started my song too high and cracked on the highest note. SUCK!!! I drove home defeated once again.

I actually wasn’t going to do the show this year, but because it’s the last year I can do the show, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge. Birmingham wasn’t that far away and I had my good friend (and good luck charm) Don Chapman say he’d go with me. So, we drove down the night before auditions, skipping the long lines that happened on Saturday and Sunday. We got in about 10:30pm and I got my ticket (it’s a seated event now). I got lucky with my ticket, as someone had just returned a ticked in the middle of the line…so instead of singing on Monday night, I assured myself of being heard earlier in the day. A lucky thing for me. We went to the hotel, checked in and stayed up watching tv and finally went to bed about midnight. I woke up bright and early at 4:15am. Another short night’s sleep. SUCK!!!

Don took me to the venue, dropped me off and went back to the hotel to sleep. He had the right idea. I was in line from 5am until about 10:30am outside the venue. They made us wait until Seacrest finally decided to show up, then they took forever to get people lined up to make the stupid crowd shot. Finally, about 9:45am or so, they opened the venue and people started to file in.

Even though I showed up at 5am, I was towards the back of the line and it took until about 10:30 to get into the venue.As I walked around the venue looking for my section (again, it was assigned seats), I heard “Sweet Home Alabama” playing loudly from the main speakers. Nice. Because we’re in Alabama, it’s fresh and cute to play Sweet Home Alabama. As I found my seat, the song came to an end and I sighed a sigh of relief, since I hate the song. Within 5 seconds of finishing the song started again. When that performance finished, they played it again. Nice. Apparently, the AI guys thought it’d be awesome to have the whole crowd sing the song in 3 part harmony. Be - A - Utiful!

Finally after hearing the song about 18 times from the speakers and being forced to sing it another 8 times, I decided that if I heard the song again, I’d really have to kill either myself or one of my rowmates. Thankfully, they decided to, instead, make us yell fun stuff like “Rueben, Bo and Taylor - now I’m the next American Idol!” (this was yelled I found out because all 3 of these guys were from Alabama and on American idol). We then yelled “Welcome to the Two - Oh - Five!”, which I found out references the fact that Rueben wore t-shirts idolizing his area code in Birmingham. I thought it was pure genius to have everyone yelling while I lip-synched because they were losing their already tired voices and I was faking it! Nice.

Finally, all that craziness ended and they brought out the tables and people started to line up to sing. Now, for AI beginners, here’s how the 1st round works: they line up tables (this time 14 of them) in a row and sit a producer and an intern from the show behind each one. Each table is only seperated by a thin sheet on a stand. They then bring people up 4 at a time, and each person of the 4 sings part of a song until they finish or (more likely) are cut off by the producer. After all 4 sing, the producer will bring all 4 up and say who, if anyone, is going on to the next round.

As we sat in our seats, my row mates and I began to become a little worried as the judges did not seem to be sending very many people through. But, then it occurred to me that either a) people were horrible, which is most likely, or b) the judges were trying to make the show a little more legit by finding the best singers out there this time around.

Now, song choice has always been hard for me. I didn’t know what to do because you just never know what they’re looking for. Don and I had auditioned a ton of songs, found a few that we thought showed my voice the best and had somewhat decided on a couple of songs. I had read on the internet that it would show originality to do an original song, so I decided to do a song I wrote for my former band The Exciting Mr. Brown called “Leave the Light On”. The song is a real bluesy type song and it shows my range, going from low stuff to falsetto to that kind of bluesy yell that singers do. They say to have 2 songs prepared, and the 2nd song continued to fluctuate. I just couldn’t find the right one. I thought about some Ray Charles songs. I thought about Stevie Wonder. I had a bunch of songs, but couldn’t decide on just one.

Right as my group was called, I remembered one of my favorite new artists: Ray LaMontagne. I also remembered the title track to his album called “Trouble”. I pulled it up on my iPod (which I brought along to keep myself in key, so that I didn’t start too high again, like last year), listened to it and decided it would be perfect, if I was asked to sing another song.Finally, I got up to my table and I sang “Leave the Light On”. The judge then asked me to sing a song she might know and I started to freak out because I don’t know many people who know Ray LaMontagne, but thank God, she said she did. I sang the song and she cut me off half-way through the chorus. I backed up to my spot as the 2 girls next to me sang and I my mind raced, thinking that I was done for sure…another American Idol trip wasted.

Then, after the 2 girls sang, the judge called us up and said, “1, 3 and 4…” (I was #2) “we’re going to have you move on.” And I thought SUCK!!!, I started to walk away from the table, until I noticed that the 3 of them were walking away, too and the judge held up her hand and asked me my name and phone number. What?!!! I made it through?!!! Yes!!!So, they took all my information and as the intern wrote it all down, the producer talked to me.

“Have you ever tried out before?” she asked.

“Yes,” I replied. “Twice before”

“Well, then you should know better than to do an original song!” she exclaimed.

“Um, no, actually I read on the internet the judges like the originality…I mean if the song is good of course.”

“Well, the song was good, but we want to hear something we know so we can know if you’re in key”

“Oh,” I said, “So, I shouldn’t do an original next round?”

“No. Definitely don’t do an original. And some constructive criticism for you: you have an incredible voice and this great look, but you need to make a better impression and perform a little better. You can’t sing with your hands in your pocket and you need to make eye contact with the audience, no matter how small the audience is.”

“Okay.”

“So, what I want you to do before the next round is practice in front of a mirror and make yourself look like you’re enjoying singing.”

“Okay.”

“Great. Now are you remembering everything I’m saying? Don’t go into the next round and make me look like a dumb-a**!”

“Okay,” I replied, “I’ll try to sing well and not make you look like a dumb-a**.”

Then I was through to the next round, with my golden ticket. I walked into the tunnel for winners (like me) and called my wife, but they made me hang up, so they could check my ID, take my picture and make me read and fill out 8 pages of forms. Nice.Then I saw that one of my row mates made it through. She was very excited and gave me a hug as I was walking out while she walked in. I was free! And I had made it to the next round! That’s right, Chris Sligh has made it to the next round of American Idol. I go back September 15 to sing for the executive producers of the show.

Now, we come back. The only thing different this year than the other years was my image. In the past I’ve had the voice, but I haven’t had the image. So, the image I’m cultivating is the chubby afroed white boy who can sing okay. And I think I might have a pretty good chance to make it through to Hollywood. And I have a feeling Simon will love my chubby belly.

 

 

 

The Road to American Idol (Pt. 2) - September 2-5

I originally tried out for AI down in Birmingham, AL and was content to have that be my only stop this year on the AI tour. However a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine started to mention that he might be interested in trying out for Ai in Memphis, but he didn’t want to go by himself. We talked it through and I decided it wouldn’t be a bad thing to go ahead and hedge my bets, so to speak, and have another option, if things didn’t go so well in Birmingham, so we decided we would go to American Idol.

Now, a modern musician must have his iPod now-a-days, and for some reason, my computer had screwed up and deleted about half of my CDs off of my iPod. I was pretty pissed and I didn’t have time for a couple of days to put the stuff back on my iPod. As I got ready for the trip, I realized that I would have to at least put some of the more important music back on my iPod. And Friday night was the first chance I got. I stayed up until about 1:30am working on that and finally collapsed into bed to get a little sleep before leaving.

Day One (Saturday)
Well, we woke up at 7:30am and left soon after packing up the XTerra. We were excited about the trip and we got on the road quickly, listening to our favorite music as loudly as we could take it without causing our ears to bleed. The 9 hour trip went pretty quicly as we listened to good music and had great conversations about life, love and other mysteries. We got into Memphis about 6pm and we got our tickets, which were, unfortunately, very far back towards the end of the line, which kind of sucked, but so be it. It was better than having to stick around a line for 5 hours to get a ticket.

The FedEx Forum where the Producer round happened the next day is right off of Beale St., which is a fmous section of Memphis, immortilized in the Marc Cohn song “Walking in Memphis” when he says “I was walking in Memphis, I was walking with my feet 10 feet of of Beale”. As we walked down Beale St. we immediately heard music playing and we noticed a blues band just sitting on the street playing. We walked down further and heard another band playing in an open air pavilion. We walked further and saw another band playing outside of a bar. As we walked down the 3 blocks of Beale St. and we heard 5 bands plus an Elvis impersonator and a Karaoke bar. And all of the musicianship was incredible (with the exception of the band in the pavilion…they were pretty bad).

We decided that it might be interesting to do some karaoke, but more importantly listen to some karaoke. Now, I should note that I am not much of a karaoke person…I’ve done it one time before this trip. But I’ve watched it several times because it almost always a train wreck that is more entertaining than bad AI auditions. So, we signed up to sing some of our favorite songs and then watched as American Idol contestants tried to strut their stuff.

I finally got called up to sing and was planning on singing “Hard to Handle” by the Black Crowes, but for some reason the machine screwed up and started playing “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal. They stopped the track and I picked another song while some girl murdered a country song. I picked out “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen just because I’ve always wanted to sing that song, and they instead played “When a Man Loves a Woman”, so I just sang that. I was able to pull out my inner Michael Bolton and I made women weep with joy and men envy my chubby body. Not really, but it did go relatively well. Afterward, two women from Toledo, OH, who were a little tipsy decided that we were cool enough for them to hang out with for the rest of the night. It was actually a little uncomfortable…I don’t have a lot of experience with drunk women, but I found out they are very affectionate. I had to mention several times that I was married, so that was a little uncomfortable.

Finally, after each of us performed a couple of times, we decided to go get some sleep. My friend and I had decided to save some money by not getting a hotel room, and had decided that we would sleep in the back of my SUV. So we had packed a single-sized mattress into the back of the vehicle. We went to a Flying J truck stop, took a shower for $6.50 (each - we didn’t take a shower together), and tried to get some sleep.

We quickly realized that 2 grown men (especially when one of them is my size) that a single bed wasn’t the best choice for sleeping arrangements. We slept very little. We went to bed about 11:30pm and woke at 4:30am. We probably slept a total of 3 hours, if that much. It was miserable.

Day Two (Sunday)
We woke up at 4:30 and I again paid $6.50 to take a shower. I can’t become awake until I have taken a shower, so it was a necessary evil. I got ready and we left soon after and we got to the FedEx Forum about 5:15am. Supposedly, there were not allowing people to line up until 5, but the line was about 8,000 people long when we got there. My friend got a place in line and I walked up to the front and asked people what time they got there. There were people who had gotten there at 2:30 that morning. Morons.

Anyway, in line we met Kris and Kelly, 2 chicas from DC. They were very cool and it was fun to hang out with them for the entirity of the line. We got to know them and about their interesting lives. Apparently Kris is a publicist for Time magazine who just married a supervising producer for The Larry King Show. How cool is that. Kelly is a math genius who works for the Missile defense department and moonlights with her two bands Full Minute of Mercury and (an 80’s Cover Band) the Legwarmers. It’s always been fun to meet different people in line of AI, and they were great people to just hang out with while we’re miserable standing up for 3 and a half hours.

Finally, Seacrest showed up (a little early this time) and they finally started to let the people in about 8:30am - much earlier than the 10:30am in Birmingham. We got to our seats and realized we were in the very last row at the top of FedEx forum…we were literally about 350 feet in the air. We sat in our seats for a little bit until everyone in our row showed up and I started to feel a little bit of two things I’ve never felt before: claustraphobia and vertigo. I was literally getting sick to my stomach, so I left and went downstairs.

In between the 2nd and 3rd level (we were in the 3rd level), there was a club level and when I went down to that level, there was no one there. I laid down on a bench and slept for about 45 minutes…that was nice. Everyone else was learning that city’s song (some country blues song called the Memphis song) and losing their voice while I slept.

Finally, people started realizing that it wasn’t cool to sing that song over and over and over again and they started to trickle down and everyone began the singing. Oh, the joy of hearing people sing off-key over and over again. If there’s anything I hate about the whole AI process is just hearing people sing over and over again.

I went downstairs after my sleep was disturbed and just walked around, listening to my iPod and watching people. It’s always interesting to see the people who come out for AI and it’s a lot of fun just to people watch. I also got interviewed by American Idol.com for their backstage video series, so that was kind of cool.

To make a long story short, the day was long and I finally got a little rest (if not sleep) up in the club room. We ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and I spent too much money on a burger ($12 for a 1/2lb burger…not cool). Finally, our section got called down about 7:45pm.

Right as I was placed in a line, all of the producers took their dinner break under the guise of a “talking-to” from Nigel Lythgoe (the show’s Executive producer). That took about 30 minutes. As the judges came back, I realized that I had the exact same producer/judge that I had had in Birmingham. I became a little worried because I thought she might not put me through simply because I had already made it through. As my group of 4 was pulled to the front (at about 8:45pm), the judge looked at me and called me up to the table.

She turned to her intern and said, “I already know that I love this guy! I mean I had him in Birmingham. Is he even allowed to try out again?”

The intern looked at her and replied, “I don’t know why not.”

I jumped in, “I’m sorry, they put me in your line, I didn’t ask to be in your line or anything. They put me in…I mean I can go to another line, if you can work it out.”

LeAnn (as I learned her name was) sent the intern to ask Nigel if it would be okay for me to try out again. As LeAnn waited for the intern to get back, she had the first 3 guys in my row sing. The intern came back and told her that it was okay for me to try out again. I sang a little bit of “Kiss from a Rose” and the intern nodded her head in approval…and LeAnn put me through again.

I went back to the winners lounge and filled out all the paper work again. I waited for my friend, but he didn’t make it through. After filling out all the paperwork, I found out that I would need to be back at 7:30am on Tuesday for the Executive Producer round. I was a little upset because my friend had to be back in Greenville on Monday, so I knew I would have to go all the way back home and turn around and come right back. Suck!!!

I was also a little upset as they told me I would have to learn the Elvis song “Burning Love” by Tuesday. I knew I would not be able to hear the song until I downloaded it at home, and I was a little worried because I don’t do well with words.

We got in our car around 10pm (Memphis time) and started driving. We got about 30 minutes from Nashville and we realized that we would have to stop. Both of us were falling asleep and having trouble keeping our eyes open. So we stayed in a ratty hotel (I got bed bug bites) for $40. I literally fell asleep within minutes and slept hard, but not long. We went to sleep at 12:30am and woke up at 5:40am. Another short night of sleep. Suck.

Day Three (Monday)
We woke up early and started driving. We made good time, that is until we were right outside of Gatlinburg and someone drove by us pointing to our back driver side tire and mouthing “flat!” We pulled off the exit and stopped at a gas station (after a near death experience where a car almost hit us). We actually parked in a Wendy’s parking lot and used rocks from Wendy’s landscaping to block our tires. Then I had to figure out how to use the “spare tire wench” to get the spare tire from the bottom of the XTerra. That actually took almost as long as actually changing the tire.

We finally got that taken care of and started driving again. We got through the mountains and through NC and into SC and my friend forgot to watch his speeding and we got pulled over for driving 76 in a 55. That added another hour to our trip and we finally got home about 3:30pm.

I quickly took a shower, which might have been the best shower I have ever taken. It was incredible. I then got onto my computer which for some reason had been attacked by thousands of viruses while I was away. I had to work through a bunch of viruses to even check my myspace account. Finally I was able to download the Elvis song, add it to my iPod and my wife (this time) and I got on the road.

We were smarter this time and my wife had packed sandwiches, snacks and lots of drinks, which we packed in our cooler. She had also pre-packed all my clothes. Wives are incredible, especially mine. We got on the road about 5:20pm (Greenville time) and headed out.

We actually made incredible time and got within about 55 miles of Memphis before midnight, when we decided to stop. We got a hotel for about $35 and it was actually pretty nice, surprisingly. We took showers and went to bed about midnight. I slept like a baby. After Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights (6, 3 and 5 hours respectively) I was wasted.
Day Four (Tuesday)
Well, it was another short night of sleep. We woke up about 6 and got ready for the day, getting on the road about 6:25am. We got into Memphis, fought through the traffic and found our venue, this time the Memphis Cook Convention Center. Sarah dropped me off and I ran into the venue to get in line while she parked. We were told to get there by 7:30am and we got there 5 minutes late…no problem though…the line hadn’t moved yet.

Finally, the 200 or so people in the line began to move forward. They searched our bags and frisked us, then we were sent to an escalator. Each person (and their entourage) were sent up seperately and there were cameras at the top of the escalator filming. Everything was a production.

We walked into what they called the “holding room” where we were seperated into contestants and family and given assigned seats. I was on the 2nd to last row of contestants and quickly realized I would be there for a while.

Phil, the supervising producer came in and warmed us up a few minutes after we all arrived. He let us know that most of us wouldn’t make it through the day and also told us that cameras were everywhere and that they were there for us. We should let our personalities show to the cameras. We were told that today’s round was actually broken up into 2 rounds, each round with a different executive producer, each one weeding out more and more people.

Soon after, Ken and Nigel, the show’s executive producer, came in and each gave their take on the day. Ken was enthusiastic and up beat. Nigel was downbeat and pessimistic. Nigel reminded us that we should react however we felt because the cameras were there for us. He told us of a contestant from the day before who had prefaced his singing in the 3rd round (with Nigel) with “Nigel, I just want to let you know that God has been good and this experience has just been great. No matter how much further I make, I just thank God for the experience. You know, it’s in God’s hands how far I make it.” Nigel heard the guy sing and told him he would not be moving through and the guy exploded “F*** you! You don’t know sh**!” As Nigel told the story, of course, the whole room laughed. It was pretty funny (and very Southern) to hear someone mention God and 3 minutes later be dropping the F-bomb.

Then, the round started after the executive producers left. The producers from the first round were there, and their job was to interview all the contestants that they had put through. They called each person one by one and tried to gather info on them that would help make a story on the show. As we waited for our turn to a) get interviewed and b) get called to sing, we listened to the stupid Elvis song over and over again. Also, we talked.

I met Rudy, who had flown from L.A.. I had heard him sing on Sunday night in the line next to me and was really impressed with his vocals. He was sitting one person down from me, so we struck up conversation. Apparently, he is part of a popular unsigned acappella group called MPact. They were actually named the best unsigned band in America by Billboard magazine. He let me listen to some of their stuff and I was very impressed. We had a lot in common, so we hung out for most of the day, just talking about stuff. It was very cool.

LeAnn finally called me to be interviewed and we had a great conversation. I found out that apparently I have had a very interesting life.

We stopped for lunch and Sarah and I had a nice meal of sandwiches and Doritos topped off with Oatmeal Cream Pies. We got called back into the holding room as the judges started seeing people again, and apparently we had to stay there until we were called.

Finally, we moved upstairs to where the EP auditions took place, and Sarah and I were again seperated…contestants on one side of the hall and family on the other. Finally about 2:45pm, I got called into room A with Ken.

I walked in and found my mark. “What will you be singing?” Ken asked. I replied with “Kiss from a Rose” and Ken replied with “Good luck…that’s a tough song.” I sang the 1st verse and the first word of the chorus and he stopped me, “you’re through,” he said and I didn’t quite understand. He pointed to the intern sitting holding my number up. “Oh,” I said, and walked out with my new number in tow, attached now to my belly.

I then went through the same process ourside of Nigel’s room. I waited on one side of the room while Sarah was on the other. People were coming out angry and upset when they were cut and the reaction when they made it ranged from cool and confident to acting crazy.

My friend Rudy made it through to Randy, Simon and Paula. Then the young girl in front of me went in for her audition. She was 16 and wearing a cheerleader uniform. She came out without making it through, and her mom cursed the show and told her daughter that “one door opens when another one closes” then she flicked off the cameras as they walked out. The girl cried.

I went in for my turn and was blown away when I walked through the door. There were 3 cameras, lights, sound and Nigel was sitting at a table with an intern as well. In front of Nigel were 2 monitors, which apparently had the feed from the cameras. Behind Nigel were 10 of the producers, including LeAnn.

When I walked in, LeAnn turned to the other producers and pointed at me, nodding her head…the other producers nodded their heads, too.

Nigel asked me if I was Charles and I told him that I was actaully Chris, because I didn’t want to be called Chuck like my dad. I then sang “Kiss from a Rose” and I could tell that Nigel was digging the singing. When I finished with a verse and chorus, LeAnn and her friends nodded back and forth and I think they were digging it, also.

Then Nigel said the fateful words: “Can you sing a little ‘Burning Love’ for me?”
I’ll be honest, I have a hard time with words of songs. I can sing just about anything once I’ve heard it…I just don’t do well with the words. So, to take an extra precaution I had written the first part of the lines of the song on my hand. When I performed the song, I kept looking down at my hand, and to be honest, the performance was one of my worst ever, in my whole career of doing music. I was actually emberrassed.

Nigel looked at me, looked down and then went into it: “Well, Chris, you don’t have a bad voice at all…in fact, you might have one of the best voices I’ve heard today…but your performace just…isn’t there. You have to get out of yourself and use your space. It just wasn’t good enough.” If he hadn’t been right, I would have argued, but he was actually right. So I walked out defeated.

I talked to the cameras and we walked out. I was very upset, not because I thought Nigel was stupid, but because I knew that if I had sang the 2nd song well, I would’ve been through to Simon Cowell. Instead I had to head home.

About 10 minutes down the road, we suddenly swerved all over the road and there was a horrible sound from outside. We pulled over and realized we had blown the back passenger side tire. I changed my 2nd tire of the trip and we got in our car and headed home. We got home about 1:30am.

Well, the trip was not successful by traditional means - I didn’t make it through to Simon - but it was actually successful. I now know what I need to work on before I go in front of Nigel again. And when I do Nigel this time, I’ll rock his face off.

 

 The Road to American Idol (Pt. 3) - September 14-15
To be honest, the last few weeks have been tough on my brain. A lot of thoughts have run through my brain and I’ve thought a lot about the whole process of American Idol and how the show could possibly completely change my life. I don’t take stardom that seriously, because I know myself and my own imperfections and find it laughable that I could be anyone’s “idol”. However, the show has the possibilities to completely change my life financially, emotionally, musically, in just about every way possible. And to think that one little mess-up (like the Elvis song in Memphis) could end this specific dream in a moment…well, it put a lot of pressure on me and my thought processes.

I worked hard since Memphis 10 days ago to improve my performance quality. I actually got in front of a mirror and sang several songs, working on getting my face to actually move. My friend Don, who has been doubling as my performance supervisor/good luck charm, advised me that when I am singing I usually have a deadpan expression on my face and that I basically looked bored. Of course, I’m never bored when I’m singing (with the exception of some praise and worship songs, but who isn’t bored by those?), so I was a little frustrated that my emotion of loving music wasn’t coming through. So, I felt like a cheeseball and hunkered down in front of a mirror and tried to look cool while I sang.

There also were 2 or 3 times that I performed my songs for Don and my wife to see what they thought about my improvements. There definitely was a progression from the first time I started to work to the night before we left for the trip when I performed for them. So, I was encouraged that I would, at least, do better this time around.

We left Thursday night, after dealing with some car issues, at about 5:30pm Greenville time. I hadn’t slept well Wednesday night because I kept waking up and thinking about American Idol and facial expressions, and then I had to work 9-4, which isn’t a bad day at work, but, then, I do talk all day long. So by 5:30 when we go on the road, I was pretty tired already.

The trip was nice. I actually enjoy the drive from here to Birmingham, with the exception of the 30-45 drive through Atlanta…that’s not too nice. We called Don a couple of times to see where he was…he was planning on meeting us down in Birmingham at the hotel, and he was getting there before us so we wanted directions directly to the hotel once he found it.

We got into Birmingham about 9:30pm Alabama time and got settled into the hotel. Don being the single man who stays up way to late on a consistent basis, he wanted to go have fun somewhere, so being adverse to peer pressure, we gave in and piled into Don’s car, driving around until we found The Cheesecake Factory. We decided that dessert would be a perfect end to the night.

When we got into the restaurant, Don decided that a snack AND dessert might be a better end to the night, so we got drinks (soft drinks, of course) and ordered the Nachos and we each got different styles of cheesecake. The whole experience was wonderful, but we stayed out too late. We finally got home about 11:15pm. That meant we didn’t get to sleep until about midnight.

Sarah has an annoying habit of setting her alarm for MUCH, MUCH too early just so she can lay in bed for a few minutes. This time she set it for 5:46am. I have a bad habit of not being able to fall asleep once I’ve been woken up. So, we were at an impasse. Sarah finally got out of bed and I tried to fall asleep, but my mind was racing, so I got out of bed and watched some tv to pass the time.

We got ready, after I made my final wardrobe choices, and left about 7:00am. We stopped at McDonalds which was much too busy for that time of day and ended up leaving before Don could order his food. So, I gave him half of my Sausage, egg and cheese McGriddle and we headed on.

We got in line outside the venue this time and the show did all their protographing and finally let us out of the hot Birmingham sun. We moved, once again to another line where they searched our bags and our bodies for bombs and guns. Fortunately, Don, Sarah and I were all weapon free (with the exception of my voice, which is considered a weapon in most countries), and we headed on to the “holding room”.

As we got into the room and I was directed to my seat, I noticed that there was a lyric sheet on the seat and then my ears became attuned to the fact that Tina Turner was playing over the speakers. I mean, Tina Turner is cool, but I don’t imagine AI is going to play a song from 20 years ago unless it is for a reason. I quickly found out the reason and I must admit several curse words ran through my mind as it dawned on my brain that I was again screwed.

However, I buckled down and actually learned the song (”Simply the Best”) pretty quickly and was feeling pretty good. We got the same talking to by the supervising producer, then the executive producers…in fact, the speeches they gave were almost word for word the same as Memphis. Then the line got started, as did the preliminary interviews. Same as Memphis. Also the same as Memphis was that I was at the back of the line.

I worked hard on the song and learned it pretty well. And felt actually pretty good about it. My performance quality wasn’t as high on that one as it was on the other songs, but I tried to break away to the bathroom to practice in front of the mirror a couple of times, but didn’t get as much time in front of the mirror as I really needed. Whatever.

This time around, LeAnn didn’t do my preliminary interview, but instead it was a dude named Joe. I think I had seen him before, but he definitely remembered me. We sat and talked for about 15 minutes, so that was cool. We talked about my background in conservative Christianity and he could relate, somewhat, from growing up a Jehovah’s Witness. We had some good conversation and he really encouraged me. He told me that he had seen me perform for Nigel up in Memphis and thought I was just incredible, I just needed to get out of myself. We talked a lot about that and he really encouraged me that I could definitely do well, I just had to “get out of myself”…so that was great.

As a side note: it’s interesting to me that these people would actually take time out of their schedules to remember me and encourage me. That’s pretty cool, and something I wasn’t expecting from the show.

As it got closer to lunch time I started to wind down, so I laid down under one of the tables and took a nap for about 20 minutes. Then they called lunch and Don, Sarah and I walked out to the parking garage to our car, where we made ham and cheese sandwiches and ate chips & queso as well as oatmeal cream pies with our sandwiches.

We headed back in and Don wandered off to find wireless internet and we waited some more. Finally about 2:30pm they pulled us out of the holding room and it was my turn to wait in front of the first EP room. There were several girls who came out of the room very upset because Ken had turned them down. It’s always sad to see that.

I finally got my turn and walked in.

Ken looked at me and said, “Now, we’ve seen you before haven’t we?”

I replied with, “Yes, sir you put me through in Memphis.”

He debated not having me sing again, then had me sing. I told him that I was going to sing “Kiss From a Rose” and then he remembered me.

“You did sing that in Memphis didn’t you. And Nigel didn’t put you through?”

“Well, I messed up the Elvis song pretty bad. He seemed like he liked the Seal song.”

“Well, you need to sing something different today,” he said.

So I chose “Trouble” by Ray LaMontagne, which is the song that originally put me through in the first place. I got halfway through the chorus and he cut me off.

“I think you’re quite good,” he said. I thanked him and he continued, “No really quite good. Get your number and I hope you make it through this time.”

I grabbed my number and headed out of the door. Now, I didn’t make a big deal when I came out because it’s not a big deal to make it through that round, so I simply walked out, grabbed my stuff and walked out. Don and Sarah, though, freaked out because they thought I hadn’t made it to the next round. But they figured it out when I walked down to the next round.

I waited in the 2nd line and was freaking out because for some reason, I had a brain fart and couldn’t remember the melody to the Tina Turner song. As I was working on that, the producer came over and one of the girls in line with me asked him if we needed to keep on working on the Tina Turner song and the producer said they had stopped having that song sung 3 hours before because no one was learning it well enough to sing. A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.

There were 3 girls ahead of me, the first 2 girls were best friends, so of course the show exploited that and had them talk to the cameras about their friendship. It was kind of sad because the girls didn’t figure out that they were being mocked, so that made me feel a little uncomfortable. The both made it through. Then the girl before me went in and was literally in there for like 15 minutes. She would sing a song and then another and another…she sang like 5 songs, then there was nothing for a long time, then the girl tried to come out the wrong door and she clanged into the door…a short pause and then out she came with her golden ticket. She and her husband cried a little for the camera, then I was told it was my turn to go in.

To be honest, as I walked in, I felt completely calm. I knew how this worked now and I felt really good about my chances with not having to sing the Tina Turner song. As I walked in, Nigel looked at me and said, “Haven’t we seen you before? You’re going to fall down and your glasses and wig fall off?”

“Um, no, my hair’s real,” I said, pulling on it to demonstrate its veracity. “I did sing for you in Memphis though, and I had a question about that. I sang ‘Kiss from a Rose’ before and I’d really like to sing it again.”

“I didn’t put you through with that song did I?”

“Well, actually you acted like you liked that song, but I sucked up the Elvis song pretty bad. Remember, I had my words written on my hand and you had me hold my hand up to the camera?”

He smiled and leaned back with a contented look on his face, “Ah, yes, now I remember. I guess you can sing the song again, but it’d better be good.”

I gathered myself and started singing and got throught the first verse and chorus. I started the song very low and it definitely hampered my ability to wail on some of the higher notes, but I just tried to hit every note well. It seemed like he enjoyed but he asked for a 2nd song. I chose “Trouble” again and I nailed it. I mean really. By the 2nd line of the chorus, I saw it in his face that I was going through to the next round. I finished and he waved his hand.

“Well, that was nice wasn’t it…get your ticket.”

It took a second for me to process this and I replied, “You want me to sing another song?”
“Why should you, you’re through Charles.” Then I heard several of the producers in the room clap and Nigel turned and gave them dirty looks and someone from the crowd said “Great job, Charles!” I grabbed my ticket and walked out of the door, pulled it out and did a little dance.

I then looked with a serous look and quoted my favorite comic Will Farrell, “I’m not sure if you know this, but I’m kind of a big deal.”

I understand that I’m really not a big deal, but man it felt good.
Chris Sligh’s Websites:
http://americanidolmusing.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/halfpastforeverband

http://frommymindtoyoureyes.blogspot.com/

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