April 02, 2008
Clay Aiken talks music, acting and talk.
I have some disappointing news for all the true Clay Aiken followers out there — the man is going to take some time off. His run in Spamalot comes to an end May 4 and his new album, On My Way Here, comes out May 6. He'll do some album promotion and, yes, he will eventually tour in support of it, but not anytime soon.
Because my time with him was limited I did not take all the specific questions I got from you (we got more than 350 posts). So I organized the relevant ones by topics.
Here's what he said on:
ACTING: "I enjoy being myself more than I enjoy being somebody else." In other words, he has enjoyed working in Spamalot but he's not looking for another Broadway role, nor is he looking to do movies, as some of you wanted to know. Clay always leaves the door open — so he says that if the right opportunity came along he would look at it — but made clear he is not actively pursuing acting.
TOURING OTHER COUNTRIES: Those of you who want him to come to Australia, Norway, Singapore and more are out of luck. Why? Clay says his record label doesn't release his albums in those places. He is actually surprised he has fans in some the places he does. He laughed and said folks can call the Sony-BMG offices in their region to tell them they want Clay's records released there. Or, "They can spam them like they spam you," he said in a nod to the internet following he has.
TOURING IN GENERAL: "I'm taking a break," Clay said. He knows that you all want to see him again, and acknowledged that there were some press reports that he would tour this summer but "we never said we were planning on touring this summer. Do we plan on touring for this (new) album? Yes. But not this summer." Clay says he hates to be "a bubble-burster" for those of you looking forward to it but, for one thing, "there hasn't been enough time to put (a tour) together.
"PRODUCING OTHERS: He knows that those even younger than he have produced the work of other talented people and he admires that but "it's not necessarily a plan.
" TALK SHOW: Now, here is something he clearly would like to do. "We put feelers out for this, that or the other...we make known what we think we're interested in doing," Clay says, using We meaning He. And he says they've made it known that talk is something he's interested in doing. But, like Spamalot, he says, sometimes it's a matter of ideas and opportunities coming together at the right time. Bottom line: nothing in the works right now.
NYC vs. N.C.: "NO," he says, when I ask if he would like to relocate to New York permanently. "I prefer New York to a lot of other places. But living here, I don't think I could do. Living here for short spurts of time is fine." He says, "I need my back yard," and then we got into how he had to send his two dogs back to Raleigh because "New York is not a place to be a dog," and how it's never quiet in NYC and rents and mortgages are outrageous and...you get the picture.
THE NEW ALBUM: "I know a lot (of the fans) like to like everything I do," Clay says, but on the new album there will be something everyone won't like, but also something everyone WILL like. A lot of you want Clay to rock out, or as he calls it "do rockin' songs" — and he says on the new album he does — but it's hard for him to find such songs. "I can't find one I'm comfortable with." He was reluctant to pick a favorite or signature song from this album but eventually said the song Something About Us could be it.
MUSIC VS. LYRICS: For Clay, it's all about the words. He says 90 percent of the songs on the new album were chosen for the lyrics: "In some way, on all of those, I connect." But he's not going to tell us how or why he connects to each specific song. Why? "Because you want people to connect for their own reasons." In other words, he doesn't want us reading into each song the possible applications to his life when we should be finding meaning in them for ourselves.
I can understand Clay needs a break, so I don't find that there won't be a summer tour all that unusual or upsetting.
Maybe he'll have a chance to find some SpamaClack to d/l and watch while he's resting. He no doubt has heard it's out there. *g*
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