You Just Never Know: From Chicken Soup For The American Idol Soul
Excerpt From Clay Aiken
American Idol Runner-Up, Season 2
It was December 2003, and Christmas was just a few weeks away. I was in Atlanta as part of a radio tour around the country when I received a very special and unexpected holiday gift.
Six months had passed since that amazing night when Ruben and I stood on stage at the Kodak Theater for the American Idol Season 2 Finale. In those months, I had loved being on the American Idols Live! tour, making my first video and album, traveling from city to city, singing live at radio stations along the way, and meeting with thousands of fans to chat and sign autographs.
At the beginning, all the adulation had been difficult for me to accept, but I was finally starting to get used to people telling me how hearing my songs or watching my videos had changed their lives. Yet, it was still a challenge for me when a fan would tell me something dramatic like, “I was thinking of ending my life and then when I put on your CD and heard your song, I realized that I actually wanted to live, and I cried tears of gratitude to...