America’s Accidental Idol

During his freshman year in college, Cook says, he ditched classes, adding that it wasn’t drugs (“Never tried them”) or alcohol (“I guess I’m a social drinker”) that contributed to his delinquency ”“ it was music. Though they received modest local acclaim, Axium became a dead-end street. “I tried to keep the band rolling, but it didn’t pan out,” he says. In his senior year, Cook took a handful of his demos and recorded a solo CD called Analog Heart. “I’d never learned so much about myself as a musician than I did that year,” he says. “I was struggling to book shows, struggling to get people to come to the shows, but I loved every second of it.”

In 2006, after graduating with a degree in graphic arts, Cook moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he had a gig lined up playing rhythm guitar in a regional touring outfit called the Midwest Kings. “It gave me a different perspective, allowed me to understand how to work a stage,” he says. He scraped by, bartending and painting apartments, while his loved ones encouraged him to come home and get a real job. “The last thing I wanted to do was tuck tail and go home,” he says. “I thought, ”˜I have my whole life to make money, and I should struggle for something I love.’ It wasn’t something I was ready to give up on.”

At 5:30 in the morning on August 10, 2007, Cook, his mother and his younger brother Andrew, 20, stood in the rain outside Omaha’s Qwest Center. “I was just there for moral support,” says David ”“ Andrew was the one actually there to audition for Idol. “I appreciated the show for what it is, a huge platform, but I never really saw it as my path.” With television cameras on, and encouragement from Andy, David auditioned with Bon Jovi’s ”˜Livin’ on a Prayer’ ”“ kicking off the nine-month journey that would lead him to Idol glory.

“I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me” is Cook’s standard answer when questions fly about Idol’s authenticity. But aside from criticising the group numbers and a particular matador outfit he was forced to wear, Cook says he got what he bargained for. “There’s a vibe associated with American Idol, and the show’s not for everybody, just like anything else,” he says. “But I’m aware that I signed on the dotted line.”

Anybody who watched the last few rounds noticed Cook’s incredible calm. “I was never in it to win it, and that took some pressure off me,” he says. “If I’d gotten caught up in all that, I would’ve had a coronary.” He means that literally: He suffers from genetically high blood pressure, so he’s learned how to stay on an even keel, or, as he puts it, “to take the yin with the yang. If not, I’ll die!” During Dolly Parton Week, he got nervous about forgetting the words, which sent his heart into a tizzy. Though he claims it was “blown out of proportion,” he was still rushed to the hospital and put on medication.

As far as behind-the-scenes Idol drama, Cook can report none. He’s looking forward to hitting the road with his former Idol mates ”“ especially Luke Menard, Amy Davis, Michael Johns and Archuleta. His fondest memories of the whole experience are getting to throw out the first pitch at a Royals game this year, meeting the band America in an airport (“I covered ”˜Sandman’ in my first talent show”), dating former Idol contestant Kimberly Caldwell and, of course, winning. “That’s when the Cliffs Notes version of your life races through your head,” says Cook, who was in tears. “I thought Archie had it.”

In New York, Cook is on his way out of MTV, where he has recorded a guest spot on the network’s Spanish-language version of TRL and realised that five years of Spanish classes have gotten him nowhere. Back on the street, he’s asked whether Chris Daughtry’s success in hard rock is a good sign for him. “I definitely think guys like Bo [Bice] and Chris have paved the way for somebody like me to have success on the show,” Cook says. “But I’ve prepped myself to have a little bit of room to breathe, a little wiggle room, because I can do the hard rock and I can do the ballads. I don’t want to make a Chris Daughtry record, I want to make a David Cook record. I feel like I know who I am.”