Kris Allen admits to feeling a little lonely on stage this week.
After all, he was being asked to perform without his guitar. And that is something you won’t find Kris Allen doing very often.
“I’ve been playing, singing, writing music since I was 13, and I don’t ever sing without my guitar,” the 23-year-old from Conway, Ark., said during a Friday afternoon teleconference.
So how did he prepare for his semifinal performance on American Idol?
“I picked a song with energy to it that maybe didn’t need that guitar. You could dance around and kind of get into it.”
And he spent a lot of time practicing, alone in his room “making sure I didn’t look like an idiot on stage in front of a million people.”
Of course, Idol fans know he sang “Man in the Mirror,” and performed it well enough to earn a spot in this year’s finals.
But first he had to shrug off what he heard last week, when Paula Abdul told Stephen Fowler that singing a Michael Jackson tune was like the kiss of death because so few contestants can measure up to the original. Stephen, it should be noted, did not make the finals.
“That was a little scary,” Kris admits. “But I was confident in what I was doing. And I was just really, really happy I didn’t get any comparisons to him, because that’s exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want anyone to compare me with Michael Jackson.”
Among the other thoughts Kris shared with the media.
If he could choose, what type of theme week would he like to see during the Idol finals?
“I would love, like, the Beatles. That would be so amazing. They have so many songs and you can do a lot with their songs.”
Was he concerned about his chances because he’d gotten so little TV time prior to the semifinals?
“That went through my head maybe a little bit. But in the back of my mind I was just trying to stay grounded and be like, ‘Hopefully, that doesn’t matter and I can go out there and do my thing on live TV and more people will be watching that than the Hollywood stuff.’”
Does he think the pre-semis TV exposure helps the contestants who receive that attention?
“I do think how much time you get on TV probably helps a lot. But in the end, it’s how good you do on that live show. Cause I hardly didn’t get any TV time, and I’m here.”
Will we see him with his guitar again and, if so, how soon?
“Hopefully the next time you see me.”
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