American Idol 14 Top 5 after show interviews are rolling in. And if some of you are wondering why Clark Beckham was so adamant about NOT backing down on his song choices and arrangements, this interview with HollywireTV goes a long way to explaining hit. Clark feels that he had “a lot of negativity” coming at him. But nevertheless, it was literally a higher power that called him to stand his ground. Label head, Shmabel head. Big Machine Label Group is nothing compared compared to the man upstairs. He’s the only guy the singer answers to.
Did he have any regrets about how he performed? “I don’t have any regrets. As an artist, and as a musician I have a responsiblity to accurately and efficiently put out the music that God has put inside of me. I’m telling you. At the deepest part of my core, if you had a microphone? That’s the music you’re hearing. I just believe, in the face of adversity, I just believe with all my heart that there are people that like what come out of me. LIKE that music that is coming out of my soul. It would be a disservice to the one who put that in me to try to hide it…It’s almost like when the scripture says…people say ‘Shut up. Stop preaching. Stop talking about the gospel. Stop talking about the Lord.’ Man, it’s like a fire shut up in my bones. I can’t help it. That’s how I feel about this kind of music.”
On how the mentors and judges criticized him this week, “I just believe the audience likes it. I just believe it. I kind of put myself on that song. So when I sang that song, it’s kind of like I was in it too, and my spirit or my SOUL was in that song. And it kind of got beat up tonight. To be honest. There’s no other way to say it. It just hurts a little bit. It just hurts to hear, especially from heros of mine, like the judges and Jay [DeMarcus] and everyone. It hurts. But I just gotta stand strong. I can’t help but play that kind of music and feel that groove.”
On his trip home, Clark says, “I’m just really hungry for some support!”
Wow. Clark is obviously NOT going to back down. At all. Scott Borchetta likely knows that by now, hence the ugly bussing (I’m still not down with how the show hosed Clark, no matter how ridiculously uncompromising the singer’s stance is).
HollywireTV Interview
Many of you already read this post-show interview from Billboard, where Clark says pretty much the same thing, sans the copious references to God:
“When I get negative comments or beat up a little bit, it ignites an ever-increasing explosive fire down in my soul. I can’t help but play that groovy R&B music. I believe deep down that there are people who really dig it. Every bit of that arrangement was mine. Every chord, every vocal, every dissonant note and the bass line, I wrote out for [musical director] Rickey [Minor]. If you put a mic into the core of my soul and turn it on, that’s what you’d be hearing. That’s what comes out of me. And to then hear people like Scott say that ‘You’re on the way to a Holiday Inn, you’re on your way to the lounge of a hotel’ … I don’t have any regrets. I don’t have a choice: The music comes out. I’m a very passionate person when it comes to sports, when it comes to relationships, and especially when it comes to music.”
Clark would probably be a better fit for gospel or CCM. Or maybe a small label run by like minded people. He believes compromising his musical principals would be a slap to God’s face. I can’t envision a situation where Clark would ever compromise with Borchetta and his team, based on these interviews.
UPDATE:
In this interview, Scott says his hometown pick for next week is a “good ole soul song” sang at the piano, and reminiscent of tunes that he did early in the competition, like “Georgia on My Mind.” He had just learned the song Scott Borchetta chose for him, and he’d never heard of it. But, he says he “trusts” Scott’s instincts.
Here, Clark reiterates that he feels “groove soul” music in his bones and that he CAN’T NOT DO IT. He can’t help himself, although he knows that Scott is a professional and has been making #1 hits for years. Also, he didn’t actually see the package, but he said you could “cut the tension in the room with a knife.”
UPDATED!: Scott Borchetta weighs in
“We don’t have time to waste on a bad song choice. At this point, I think Clark is stuck in 3rd gear. You’ve got the other three coming on like gang busters. I think you have a very flat situation right now, and may the best man or woman win.” Scott adds, “You’re always proud of the ones who get it and elevate. When you look at Nick Fradiani when I met him 6 months ago, he couldn’t even look in the camera…I’m very proud of Nick. I’m very proud of Jax. Rayvon. Look at him coming out of being in the bottom two 5 weeks in a row! Unfazed. Gets up there…America loves an underdog. You can’t count him out.”
And…”If you don’t like the way that we roll. Well then quit. What’s great about this top four is there are no quitters. They want it.”
