My wife just adores Clay Aiken. She has all his CDs, has seen him in concert when he came to town, and reads and watches anything she can about him or with him.
He's okay...has a very nice voice and good stage presence, seems intelligent and to have a good sense of humor, and he's definately outsdistanced all his other American Idols. He's put Kelly Clarkson off the map. Justin who? Reuben what? The only other one you hear about is Fantasia Barrino, and that's because she's still fairly new. Give it time, and she'll fade into oblivion, too. I do hope I'm wrong about her, though. I like her.
Don't get me wrong...I like Clay, too, though I'd never let on to my wife. I like to kid her about his sexual orientation. She gets pissy with me when I say, with forced sarcasm, that he's a fag, or a gaywad, or some similarly less-than-PC term for a pole smoker.
What does bother me, however, is the way the talk shows and other Hollywood outlets seem set on impugning his name. I was watching Leno the other night, and Kathy Griffin was on. She claims to be a Claymate, but kept referring, time after time, to Aiken's "supposed heterosexuality" with rolled eyes and comical pauses.
I've noticed this trend, at various times, from Letterman, Conan O'Brien and other late-night talk shows. Other stars, too, in interviews, have made various references questioning his sexuality.
This burns my ass; Clay Aiken has been a breath of fresh air in the fetid, stagnant world of pop music. Because he isn't a hedonistic asshole who crackles his brain cells with drugs and destroys hotel rooms in fits of drunken or drug-induced debauchery, he just has to be a homo. Because he has head on straight, keeps to himself, challenges our perceptions of what a "star" has to be, and isn't out partying till all hours, having sex with underage groupies, he's just got to be gay. Bullshit.
So the guy's a straight shooter. What wrong with that? He's a better role model for all those teens out there listening to his music than any of the stars I grew up listening to.
I say good luck to him; I hope he keeps charting his straight course and isn't pulled into the swamp that most singers and actors get pulled into. We have enough of them.