Last Friday was a very interesting day and some of you have been asking about it, so I thought I would blog about it. What started out as a pretty normal day turned out to be pretty unique. We decided to go to Hollywood Studios for the day to celebrate the beginning of summer. When we were on the parking lot tram, Tiff said she wanted to go the new American Idol Experience. When got through the gate we decided to go check out the first show of AI Experience, they have 7 shows a day. We were standing in line and Tiff says, "you should try out for this, what are we doing in line?" I reluctantly said okay and we got out of line and walked to the audition spot. I went in the door and they give me this list of songs and said that I could take one person back with me, so I picked Jada. They took me into this room with a producer and he asked me to sing a 30 second song acapella. So I sang and he said that he liked it and sent me to the next round. I was met by a concierge and they took me to the Coca-Cola Lounge and they gave me an i-pod and wanted me to pick two songs. After about 10 minutes, I picked my two songs and they told me that I would be singing for the Executive Producer of the show there at Disney. I went in and he gave me a mic, chatted to me for a second and then I sang. After the first song, Ryan Secrest pops up on a screen and told me that I was in the show. I was going to be in the 2 pm show. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I certainly didn't expect to be singing in the show.
My call time was 12:50, I went to backstage entrance and was met by a production assistant and he took me in the door. From that point I was taken into the green room where I was told that was going to hair and makeup and vocal coaching. Then they let me rehearse my song on the Idol stage. You would not believe this stage, it was the exact replica of the real stage in Hollywood. I was also told that the auditorium has around 1000 seats and that the place would be packed. Luckily for me I had sang in front of a lot of people. That part didn't bother me.
The show began at 2 pm and it was crazy. There was a Ryan Secrest type host and three judges who resembled Randy, Paula and Simon. They were real music pros, pretty cool. I got to talk to them after the show. I was the last one to sing and then the audience voted. The judges were very kind to me (even the Simon knock off). After the audience voted they announced the winner and it was me! It was so weird and surprising. That meant that I was in the finale show at 7 pm. Crazy!
At the finale show, I went up against 6 other people who had won their respective shows throughout the day. I went up against a 16 yr old from Dallas who sang a Taylor Swift song, a 18 yr. girl from New York who did Aretha Franklin, an older guy from Texas who sang Bob Seger, the worship pastor Dan from Granger Community Church (we talked for a while, great guy). Dan sang Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas. There was also a guy from Oklahoma who sang "What a Wonderful World" and a girl from Miami that sang Alone by Heart. Then there was little ole me, a white guy singing Stevie Wonder.
Fast forward to the end of the show, it came down to me and the girl from New York and they called my name and it was surreal. The confetti fell from the sky and the crowd gave me a standing o. It was nuts! My prize was a Magic Ticket. The ticket allows me to go to the front of the line or actually make an appointment with the producers of the real American Idol. Unfortunately for me, at the current rules I am too old, however they are thinking about raising the age to 32. Even then, not sure if I would ever take advantage of the ticket. I had a blast but I did it just for fun. It was certainly something I will never forget.