Article: These "Idol" Hands are Happily Busy

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These "Idol" hands are happily busy
By Ricardo Baca
Denver Post Pop Music Critic
11/11/05

Say what you want about Clay Aiken - and there is so much to say - but it's impossible to question his incorruptibility. (Or at least the appearance of said virtue.)

The "American Idol" runner-up who turns 27 this month still loves Christmas songs, invited his high school music teacher on his current tour, and still can't imagine people talking about him when he's not there, let alone halfway around the globe.

He's a UNICEF ambassador tripping to Indonesia and Uganda, he wrote a series of vignettes for his Joyful Noise 2005 tour stopping Denver on Wednesday, and he cast young Gregory Ellis from Raleigh, N.C., in the skits and is tutoring him on the road.

Perhaps what wraps up Aiken's appeal - and his modest reaction to all the attention of the past three years - is the news that came in August from a TV Guide/Bravo poll declaring him the most-loved reality TV star of all time.

"Reality TV hasn't been around all that long," he said earlier this week by telephone before a show in Oakland, Calif. "I don't know. I really don't know, to be honest with you. It's very nice."

He's quiet for a second.

"To some extent, it sets up a false expectation for anything we do in the future," he said. "When you see anything like that, you expect beaucoup success all the time. But if the next album comes out and sells any less than 600,000 in it's first week, is it gonna be a failure because it didn't do as well as the first one? If next year they do the same survey and I don't even show up on it ... I don't know. I haven't figured this industry out quite yet."

Aiken has more figured out than his coached Southern charm is letting on. Check his website, clayaiken.com, and watch the Flash banner ad that pushes his many projects, from "Measure of a Man," his debut CD, to his book "Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life."

"It's all still, to some extent, a little more surreal than it should be after 2 ½ years," he said. "To think that people talk about me when I'm not around, that people are sitting around the dinner table talking about me, that's strange. It's something I didn't expect in my life. And now there's a cash card with my face on it, and it's interesting. I can't say anything bad about it, because it's amazingly flattering."

Is it flattering? Or is it creepy? It's a debit card. And it's not that he can't say anything bad about these fans who want his likeness on their plastic. It's more like he shouldn't. It's merchandising. And why would he risk that corporate relationship - and that intimate link with the fans?

Aiken and his team were smart in their approach to his early career - perhaps more on top of things than any other "Idol" projectile. Immediately following the show came the singles: "Bridge Over Troubled Water"/"This Is the Night," followed by his debut full-length album "Measure of a Man," constant touring, then "Merry Christmas With Love," the holiday album that solidified his place with preteens and homemakers already intoxicated by him.

"Joy to the World" indeed.

But it's not all about the money for Aiken. Ask him about the music and his life and he talks excitedly and assuredly. But ask him about his involvement with UNICEF - an organization he was mostly unfamiliar with until they approached him to be an educational ambassador - and his tone grows urgent.

"I don't know my world enough, I learned that, and I wanna know more about it," Aiken said of his trips to Indonesia and Uganda. "The people I'm surrounded by don't know their world enough. I'm not saying the problems (over there) outweigh the problems in the U.S., but people don't even know what's going on in their own country.

"In this position that I'm in now, I'm finding myself more willing to say something about it than being the passive and non-vocal person I had to be on that show. ... I'm not as worried about ruffling the feathers as I used to be."

This is Aiken's second holiday tour. The two months and 36 cities are an impressive show of his fan appeal - and for his supposed love for the music. The vignettes he wrote link the songs like a musical revue, although Aiken is the first to admit it's not the most original holiday story line.

"The story talks about a character who has lost the Christmas spirit - it's a typical story arc - and it takes a child to help her remember what the meaning of Christmas really is," he said.

"This is our favorite tour. Christmas music to me is easy to get passionate about. There's no other time in the year that is so connected with emotion than the holidays, and these songs are so emotional. And that's what music should be about."