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Hangin with Chris Sligh at The Tonight Show
This morning I chatted with Chris Sligh about all things AMERICAN IDOL. More on that in a second though because first I have to tell you about my earlier encounter with him at The TONIGHT SHOW. The top top ten finalists will be visiting the show every week to do a quick bit during Jay Leno's monologue. They will each get paired up with a music legend for a quick skit. This week Chris was paired up with the always entertaining, Little Richard. As you can imagine he's quite a character and it's always fun to hang out with a legend. The guy is a hoot. My experience with him lasted longer than one might wish though. Just as we were about to roll on the interview in his dressing room, Little Richard sprayed not one but two separate colognes! I'm already allergic to perfume to begin with so you can imagine my horror as the door is closed on this small space that cant be more than a 7' x 7' room. Love you Little Richard but I smelled like a Little Dick for the rest of the day. Bah dum bump. Thanks to my friend Bryant for that joke. Seriously, I did have lingering cologne on my shirt for the rest of the night.
Interesting to note that Little Richard is a big fan of Sanjaya Malakar, especially the hair, but was pretty adamant that he not win, " I think that they will call AMERICAN IDOL a joke. I am not against him. I am for him but the truth is.. he is not the greatest singer they have had on there and he is not the worst singer that they have had on there. I think that the truth will prevail. If it is for him to win, he'll win."
Chris got a quick bit of advice from Little Richard who told him in his dressing room, "You got to remember it doesn't matter what no man say. God is in charge and I think that a lot of doors are getting ready to open for you."
I noticed Chris seemed really nervous just before he was about to hit THE TONIGHT SHOW stage and when I spoke to him backstage he admitted this was a big deal for two reasons, "Seriously, we were driving up with my wife in the limo and I like seriously just started smiling because I saw the big sign, and you know, 'Tonight Show with Jay Leno.' When it comes to singing, I don't get nervous but it has been a while since I have done any kind of like acting or anything like that and even though it wasn't really acting having lines to memorize or something, I was a little bit nervous, yeah."
He did great! Afterwards he told me that he and his wife will be heading off for a much needed vacation, "I think we are going to go to Bermuda. That is where we went on our honeymoon and it's almost our anniversary so we will celebrate a little bit."
This morning Chris and I got a little more in depth about the news that he at one point thought about quitting the show, "It was one of those things where for like 30 minutes after a show I was really upset because some of the performances I thought were really great , like Blake and Phil's and Chris' and Gina's, got universally trashed by the judges. It's kind of like when you are at a job, everybody has that moment in their job where they go 'I cant take this.' I think it was just one of those moments. I was trying to find my bearings and then when you are at a job you realize the reason I'm here is because its a really good job and then pay me money."
As I reported yesterday, He asked one of the folks from 19 Entertainment if he could still go on the Idol tour if he made the Top 10 if he quit. The answer was no. They then took a stroll around the CBS lot (where the show is taped) where they chatted about the situation, "That's the thing that you guys don't see, that we have people from the show who genuinely care about us and want us to do well. It was one of those things where I had an emotional reaction and cold hard facts kind of stepped in and helped me understand this is why I'm in the competition. If you ask every 'American Idol' from this year or past years if there was ever a moment that they wanted to quit, guaranteed they will all say yes because I've heard everyone of them say that they want to quit."
Of course, I had to bring up his pal Sanjaya. He says the kid has not been paying attention to all the negative press about him, "Sanjaya is a real resilient kid and I think that he takes it all in stride. I personally don't envy the position that he is in and he has handled it all really, really well."
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