The Time of His Life
With a national tour behind him and a debut album out this month, David Cook is just warming up.
Shortly after plunking down his bags in his new Tulsa home two years ago, David Cook recalls hearing a quote, which seems eerily prescient now.
"'Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity' is a quote I was told when I first moved to Tulsa – it really was just that," the 25-year-old American Idol winner recalls of the famous phrase uttered by motivational speaker, Earl Nightingale.
As the phrase foretold, the recent graphic design graduate, wannabe rock star and bartender would soon find himself packing his bags again on his way to the national spotlight and Idol stardom.
"I've worked at doing this since I was 15 years old, and everything else in my life at the time seemed pointless or mundane. It's funny to look back and see how the past interacts with what I am doing now – like the graphic design stuff. I spent a lot of time designing CDs, posters and ancillary material... just thinking, hey, it's fun. And that artistic ideal really parlays itself into what I'm doing now. I believe in fate to a degree. I believe fate puts you in a position that allows you the opportunity to do what you want to do. I believe it's just a matter of whether or not you have the wherewithal to take hold of it, and go with it."
The role fate played in Cook's rise to fame is now the stuff of legend. He originally set out for the American Idol auditions in Omaha, Neb. in support of his younger brother Andrew. Although his original plan was to stay in the shadows, Andrew convinced him to audition too. So, Cook picked up a microphone and sang Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" for the show's judges, and the rest, as they say, is Idol history.
"It was a very out-of-body experience. I can't remember what it felt like to stand on that stage," Cook says of the moment that catapulted him from a final contender to champ last May, just a few months after that fateful audition.
"I feel like I have a third-person view of it. It's like... I can remember what it looked like. And I can remember reactions. But I can't remember how I felt. You know I look back on the reaction when they said my name, and I'm like... I did that? It's one of those life-defining moments, I hope."
Cook's life in Tulsa, before "Idol," had just been taking definition. Bartending stints kept him afloat while he cut his own CD, Analog Heart, and toured with the popular Tulsa-based band Midwest Kings playing guitar, bass and singing back-up vocals. It was an experience that would eventually serve as prep school for the American Idol Live summer tour, featuring the show's top 10 finalists in a whirlwind trip to 49 U.S. and Canadian cities in 75 days. During the tour, Cook divided his time between performing and working on his debut CD. And, as the journey wound down, preparing to say goodbye to friends who have become like family.
Unpretentious, soft spoken and quick-witted, Cook's tone deepens in wistful sincerity when he speaks of his fellow Idol contestants.
"You know, it's really bittersweet – I've built relationships with these guys over the last year and from that standpoint, I'll be sad to see everyone go their own way," he says of his fellow Idol mates, particularly Carly Smithson and Michael Johns, with whom he says he formed the tightest bonds. "Hopefully we'll be able to reconvene as a group and catch up," says Cook.
"By the same token, I'm really excited because I grew up playing original music, and in the last year, I've had to sing everyone else's songs. To get back into the original music realm where I can sing the songs that I created from scratch is something I am definitely looking forward to.
"I've done a lot of co-writes for this record. I went into this process knowing what kind of music I wanted to make. I knew what kind of artist I was," Cook continues. "But I'm also pretty 'green' to the process. I went in without an ego and just said, hey... let's bring in people I can co-write with and really work on some different sounds. I know what kind of songs I can write, but I don't know what kind of songs everyone else can write. So it's been fun, it's been a great learning process and definitely the most fruitful period of my life musically."
Cook partnered on the album with several fellow Oklahomans, including former Midwest Kings bandmates Andy Skib and Neal Tiemann, as well as Zac Maloy of the Nixons. Produced by Rob Cavallo, the CD's early release single "Light On" is creating a sensation that is becoming typical of all things Cook. While he's only been releasing music for a short time, Cook's become accustomed to shattering record charts, including the unparalleled feat of having 11 songs entered at one time on the Billboard Hot 100. Cook's post-Idol release "Time of My Life" debuted at the No. 3 spot on the same chart, and was a No. 1 download on iTunes.
With so much early and unprecedented success fronting this release, Cook speaks with a remarkable level of maturity about what it's like coping with enormous expectations and stress.
"You know, it's interesting... all the pressure I feel is pressure that I put on myself," he says. "I want to put out a record that is important, and I want to put together a live show that's more than just... you know, you come and hear 12 songs and that's it. I want it to be experienced on a lot of sensory levels. So, the pressure that's built up is all self-created.
"As far as de-stressing, I've got a great circle of people around me. I have a great family, I have wonderful friends and the fact that I've been able to tour this summer with nine people going through the same experience – it's been a godsend.
"That's where it gets a little bittersweet... I don't know what I'm going to do with myself after the other nine are off doing their own thing. I'll probably call them and be like, 'Dude, I don't know how to handle this.' We definitely lean on each other quite a bit."
As the seventh American Idol winner, Cooks says he is also able to draw emotional support and empathy from previous winners and participants, including Checotah, Okla. native and Season Four American Idol winner Carrie Underwood.
"I talk to Carrie every now and again," he says. "Carrie's been awesome in that she's really been available to me for advice, just to try to navigate what is the absurd lifestyle of being a winner of American Idol. Past that, you know, you catch people at shows – Gina Glocksen (from American Idol Season Six) came to our show in Fort Wayne, Ind.. It's always nice to just talk to people who have been through the experience and try to pick their brain – it's definitely a fraternity of sorts."
That fraternity also includes the show's judges – Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell – the central core of the extended American Idol family circle.
"I ran into Randy and Paula a couple of times this summer at events, but Simon's been a little harder to track down," Cook says. "Although I imagine I'll see him this next season – I'm sure I'll stop by and catch a show."
Maintaining a congenial relationship with the judges throughout the season – even with the feather-ruffling Cowell – may have been a noteworthy accomplishment in itself for the affable Cook, who takes personal joy in shaking things up with audiences. In fact, when asked which song he performed during the season brought him the most satisfaction, the post-grunge/alternative rocker gives an unexpected response.
"'Music of the Night,'" he says of the Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber classic from Broadway's The Phantom of the Opera. "In case it wasn't obvious on the show, I kind of enjoyed messing with people and really turning their expectations on their ear a little bit. To know, going into that week, that I could pull it off – not necessarily that I would – but that I could, and then to have it go over as well as it did was exciting because I knew some people didn't think I could do it."
Another thing about Cook that may surprise his fans includes one of his dreams for the future.
"There's just something inherently real about the Midwest that I haven't experienced anywhere else in the country," says the Houston native, who grew up in Blue Springs, Mo. "Like Oklahoma and Kansas City – the places where I really grew up and lived – all have that in common. I think when all is said and done; I'll probably wind up in the Midwest somewhere. There's just a vibe there that you can't find anywhere else... it's just the right speed for me."
Cook says the draw to Tulsa is still a personally significant one, and that he finds himself missing – among other things – the action in the city's downtown district.
"I've got a ton of friends there and I spent two years of my life – probably two of the most defining years of my life – in Tulsa, just finding out who I was as a human being and as an individual and a musician," he says.
With the release of his new CD, which he plans to support with a tour early next year, Cook's life isn't slowing down. In fact it's just the opposite. With clamoring fans, an unrelenting schedule, and back-to-back talk show and media appearances, one wonders if being a rock star is every bit as cool as he'd hoped.
"On paper, yes... it's a lot of work, though," he says with a chuckle. "But my worst day of doing this beats my best day of doing anything else. I've been tired since March. I'm trying to get to Christmas."
In spite of the exhaustion, the world's newest rock sensation looks beyond the immediate, and foresees a future that blends his enthusiasm and hope with a capacity for personal happiness and artistic expression
"As long as I'm happy doing what I'm doing, I'm okay," Cook says. "My goal on this record is to have it do well enough that I can make another record – and that will be the goal of every record. Obviously, I have loftier ideals. I want this record to be important and stand up long after I'm gone. But you know, the first goal is to make another record. I'll be a musician the rest of my life."
GALLERY LINK:
- Oklahoma Magazine - Nov, 2008
