Clay Aiken

 

If you love or hate American Idol, you cannot deny it's a genuine phenomenon and second season runner-up Clay Aiken is a big part of it. While Aiken lost out to Ruben Studdard by 134,400 of the 24 million votes, at times it was hard to determine who the real winner was.

Aiken appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone a month before Studdard. His first single, "This Is The Night," backed with his cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," debuted at No. 1, one position ahead of Studdard's "Flying Without Wings," when both songs bowed on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 2002. Not bad for a 24-year-old former camp counselor from Raleigh, North Carolina.

During the American Idol contest, Aiken managed to garner the attention of children and middle-aged housewives with his crooning, creating near Clay-mania in the process. He even managed to nearly bring celebrity judge Neil Sedaka to tears with his version of the Sedaka-penned Carpenters hit "Solitaire."

 

While Aiken preferred to keep much of his past private during the American Idol run, he did open up in his Rolling Stone interview. He revealed he's a church-going Baptist who attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he majored in special education. He co-founded the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, which aims to provide opportunities for individuals with autism and other physical and mental disabilities. He's scared of water, favors instant grits over the real thing and, believe it or not, bites his toenails.

Aiken also is the product of a broken home. His biological father is Vernon Grissom, but the star-to-be opted to legally change to his mother's name in the late '90s. Grissom, according to Aiken, was a violent alcoholic who abandoned Clay and his mother when he was 1-years-old. Aiken prefers to think of Ray Parker--his mother's second husband, who died in July 2002--as his real dad.

 

Aiken's debut album, Measure Of A Man, was released in October 2003. The album was recorded in Los Angeles, Miami, and London, with executive producer Clive Davis, American Idol creator Simon Fuller and producers and songwriters including Steve Mac, Cliff Magness, Desmond Child, Steve Morales, and Rick Nowels.

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