“I’m here to make David Hasselhoff cry.” Or something to that effect.
I liked him. He had personality and a sense of humor, but it was just one of those seasons that had stronger female contestants. If it wasn’t going to be Jordin winning that season, it would have been Melinda.
I decided to take a look through his Instagram feed to see what he’s been up to. He actually stepped away from music entirely for several years in part due to an infidelity in his marriage on his part and he and his wife worked on rebuilding their marriage (the good news is that they’re still together, have been married over 20 years, and they have a daughter who’s either a teenager or close to it). He had also worked as a worship leader in a few churches, but stepped away from that a few years ago after losing his job. He went back into songwriting around 2019, writing mostly for up and coming country singers, and and he just released an EP of new music last month. It’s called *White Picket Fences* and you can find a playlist of it [here](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kiicgxvWsFLLUWzb3eYmtSetMLB48xA_g&si=t9RfmRBlK61gK97E).
One of the artists he’s written for in recent years is Chris Housman, who is openly gay. I make a point of this because from what I gathered from the information about Chris’s early years, he grew up either in the IFB — Independent Fundamental Baptists — which is a notoriously hardline fundamentalist subdenomination of the Baptists, or at least grew up IFB-adjacent. He attended Pensacola Christian College, which is an IFB-affiliated school, as well as Bob Jones University, which was affiliated with Christian fundamentalism for much of its history, but has now shifted slightly to Evangelical Protestant. (If you’ve seen the Investigation Discovery series *Let Us Prey*, that series is about the IFB and the acts of abuse that have gone in within and by leaders of its churches.) Chris has mentioned in his Instagram posts that he considers himself an ally of the LGBTQ community, which I imagine has come a long way from what he was raised in. One of the songs he co-wrote with Housman, “Drag Queen”, you can listen to [here](https://youtu.be/arSRGdl_0jA?si=mBH3ZjbScMrh_C7H).
Needless to say, he’s had an interesting decade or so since he was on Idol, but he seems to be in a very good place now.
Great in auditions/Hollywood, forgettable once we got to the top 12. Wouldn’t have minded him lasting a few more weeks but tbh his performance the week he got eliminated was pretty horrible. He sang Every Little Thing She Does is Magic and it was soooo off tempo.
Had a few missteps notably in Top 12 and 10 weeks and was eventually outperformed by others who were elevating up in front runner status ie Jordjn, Blake, Chris R, Melinda.
“I’m here to make David Hasselhoff cry.” Or something to that effect. I liked him. He had personality and a sense of humor, but it was just one of those seasons that had stronger female contestants. If it wasn’t going to be Jordin winning that season, it would have been Melinda. I decided to take a look through his Instagram feed to see what he’s been up to. He actually stepped away from music entirely for several years in part due to an infidelity in his marriage on his part and he and his wife worked on rebuilding their marriage (the good news is that they’re still together, have been married over 20 years, and they have a daughter who’s either a teenager or close to it). He had also worked as a worship leader in a few churches, but stepped away from that a few years ago after losing his job. He went back into songwriting around 2019, writing mostly for up and coming country singers, and and he just released an EP of new music last month. It’s called *White Picket Fences* and you can find a playlist of it [here](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kiicgxvWsFLLUWzb3eYmtSetMLB48xA_g&si=t9RfmRBlK61gK97E). One of the artists he’s written for in recent years is Chris Housman, who is openly gay. I make a point of this because from what I gathered from the information about Chris’s early years, he grew up either in the IFB — Independent Fundamental Baptists — which is a notoriously hardline fundamentalist subdenomination of the Baptists, or at least grew up IFB-adjacent. He attended Pensacola Christian College, which is an IFB-affiliated school, as well as Bob Jones University, which was affiliated with Christian fundamentalism for much of its history, but has now shifted slightly to Evangelical Protestant. (If you’ve seen the Investigation Discovery series *Let Us Prey*, that series is about the IFB and the acts of abuse that have gone in within and by leaders of its churches.) Chris has mentioned in his Instagram posts that he considers himself an ally of the LGBTQ community, which I imagine has come a long way from what he was raised in. One of the songs he co-wrote with Housman, “Drag Queen”, you can listen to [here](https://youtu.be/arSRGdl_0jA?si=mBH3ZjbScMrh_C7H). Needless to say, he’s had an interesting decade or so since he was on Idol, but he seems to be in a very good place now.
He had the best humor out of any contestant in the history of “Idol.” He should have gone further in the competition.
Definitely should have gone further
100% agree
Hi Dave!!!
I didn’t watch his season, but I read somewhere that he is a co-writer of “Here Comes Goodbye”, and I think that’s very impressive.
Humor 10/10, Singing Voice 6/10 at best
good voice, terrible attitude tbh
Great in auditions/Hollywood, forgettable once we got to the top 12. Wouldn’t have minded him lasting a few more weeks but tbh his performance the week he got eliminated was pretty horrible. He sang Every Little Thing She Does is Magic and it was soooo off tempo.
I liked his singing a lot and wanted to see him go further!!!
Had a few missteps notably in Top 12 and 10 weeks and was eventually outperformed by others who were elevating up in front runner status ie Jordjn, Blake, Chris R, Melinda.
He seemed extremely arrogant to me and didn’t really have the chops to back it up.