Video: Clay Aiken Is Ringing In the Holidays with New Album

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It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon. Well, hello, Broadway family. How you doing

I'm Robert Bannon. You're watching The Roundtable. It's an exclusive Friday here on Broadway World

and I am so excited about this week. I'm of a certain age where I go back to American Idol season one

I definitely go back to season two. I think I even went to Giant Stadium to Z100 Zootopia to see our next guest

You know what I'm saying? Our next guest has been on Broadway. Our next guest has recorded

He has a record with Celine Dion about the highest charting Christmas album

Clay Aiken is here. If you've never seen us before, this show is here Fridays on Broadway World or every day on Broadway Podcast Network or on YouTube

We talk to some of artists best. We talk about art. Sometimes it's a Broadway star

Sometimes it's a musician. Sometimes it's an actor. Sometimes it's someone who's done them all

I love Christmas music, and I know it's not even Thanksgiving. I don't even care because I have been listening to Christmas music since Halloween

Sometimes in my house, Christmas music just pops up in July. The first day I met my husband, he played me Kelly Clarkson's Christmas music right there in the car

It's just about joy. It gives me joy. I have my own Christmas single called Don't Save It All for Christmas Day, which just so happens to be a song I stole from Clay

So, so Clay has been an inspiration. Look, look, there's mine. There's Clay

Mine. Clay. I think me and Clay could be related. Well, his new album is so gorgeous

And I want you to enjoy this. You could follow me if you love this mess at Robert M. Vannan

You can go to Robert Vannan.com and you can get more information about me. And you got to follow Clay can and stream his new album

This new album is called Christmas bells are ringing. Today's release day and you need to check it out

Add it to your rotation. your Spotify playlist. 20 something years ago

they broke records. Ruben and Clay were household names. He's going to tell you all about his journey to Broadway

He's going to tell you all about what it was like to be shot out of the canon. And he's going to tell you all about what has been like to be a father

and have Christmas in his house since his first Christmas album. Christmas bells are ringing and streaming

The one and only multi-platinum American Idol, America's sweetheart. Clay Aiken. makes his roundtable debut here on Broadway World

Listen, the best Christmas album I ever. Do you remember this album

I think it's like 20 years ago, folks. And I couldn't believe it

Is it really? Is it too good to be true that this album is 20 years ago

Merry Christmas with love is 20 years ago. Well, Clay Aiken has stolen our hearts

He broke records with his first Christmas album. And the new album is so gorgeous. I'm telling you, I had the chance to listen to it

Christmas bells are ringing is out. You need to stream it. You need to listen to it

Do you hear what I hear? What a beautiful version of the song

We are so excited. Clay Aiken, welcome to the roundtable. Well, thank you very much for having me

And for that introduction. That's so, huh. Take you with me everywhere

No, I'm in. Let's go. You just introduce me everywhere I go

I've tried to sing your songs, but I don't have that range, Clay. You're out there. You hear me today

You hear me today. I don't have that range today. I've got, I've been painting and working

doing woodworking stuff, which is very, so I sound butch and I'm acting butch. It's very strange

And I've got all that, and I hadn't worn a mask. So I've got all this sawdust in my throat, I think

Well, I, well, I've never been butch a day in my life. Well, listen, it took, it took sawdust for me to

a lot of people who watch our show every single week, like our friend Christine, she's in North

Carolina, she's volunteered with your campaign. She's been a claymate from the go. We were so excited to

spend some time with you. So thank you for being here. Well, thank you for having me. And thank you, Christine. Thanks for trying. Well, we love and appreciate all that you are

I can't believe that you haven't put an album out in how long a moment. Yeah, it's been 15 years

about 15 years. Last one came out 2010. So, yeah, 14 years, we'll round up

So what in your spirit said, like, this is the time we need a new Christmas album

Well, I had kind of veered towards the political thing, and I've decided I hate all of them

So I'm not doing that again. I've been about 10 years doing that and sort of staying away from music

When your hobby becomes your job, I think it can become tough, right

And I'm not complaining about, I mean, I love every single part of my earlier career

But I went on, I think, 11 tours in the span of six or seven years

And I had sort of gotten exhausted. And so I needed to take a break

My son had been born in 08 and was at that age that you don't want to be away

So that took me off the road. And now he's 16. He's not interested in me at all

And Ruben called me up last year and or the year before last I guess and said you know it been 20 years since we did Idle we should do something together And so we went out of the road together for a 20th anniversary tour And I had so much fun with that that after it was over I thought okay maybe I ready to do this again

And you did it. And everyone, the album is out, but I had a sneak peek and I got to listen to it

Your voice, do you hear what I hear? The control you have, that arrangement, the way you play with that melody, the modulations

gorgeous. Well, I appreciate it. I can't take credit. My music director, Ben Cohn, who is

he was the MD for Dera and Hanson. He's doing, what's he doing now? The one with Megan Hilty

Death Becomes her. Death Becomes her. He's the MD for Death Becomes Her. He's been my music

director for years, even though I hadn't really been doing anything. He arranged that

and he's so incredible and I just knew, do you hear what I? He was one of the songs when I

decided I wanted to do an album and do a Christmas album

That was the first song. It was the one song that was like, I have to do this. And I didn't know what I wanted to do with it

but I knew I didn't want to do the Bing Crosby original. I wanted to be something bigger

And so I said, you know what, Ben, we'll just let Ben handle it

And he definitely handled it. He did a beautiful job. So how do you pick the song

The album is gorgeous. It's so fun. How do you pick what you sing

Well, I did a Christmas album 20 years ago, and then I did a Christmas EP in 206, I guess

So there weren't many Christmas songs left. So we pretty much took what was left

I don't, I'm not a big, big fan. I mean, Merry Christmas with Love had Merry Christmas with Love on it, and it had Don't Save It All for Christmas Day

And Mary, did you know at the time was an original. It had only been, no one really knew

We had kind of grabbed it out of obscurity. Many, many people have done it since. So I don't really love Christmas albums when folks try to reinvent the wheel and do new

I mean, everybody wants to be Mariah Carey, right? Everybody thinks they're going to get the next Al I want for Christmas as you

and they're going to make millions a year off of that. And no one's going to have that

No one's going to beat Maria. Don't just stop. And so I don't really love original

that much. So I knew I wanted to kind of grab traditional stuff, or at least older stuff. And so that made it a little easier. It narrowed down the options, right, of what I could choose. So that helped. And then some of them, I also, I kind of am very intrigued when people do Christmas albums and they sing songs that aren't really Christmas songs. You know, my favorite things from Sound of Music, not a Christmas song, but so many people do it as a Christmas song

So I wanted to do that. Pure Imagination is not a Christmas song, but it has that Christmas spirit to it, right? It's about, you know, you think of kids, you think of a magic. I mean, it's about creating this magical world, which is what we do every December, right? And so I wanted to put that on as a Christmas song. And Ron Fair, who produced the whole album, just brilliantly had this vision of being able to do purestance

imagination as we all know and love it, but somehow make it Christmasy also. So it's got

Gloria and a Chelsea Sto mixed into it. And so some songs were chosen because I wanted traditional

Christmas songs and some songs were chosen because I wanted traditional songs that we could

do Christmassy. Well, you get 10, you get 10 tracks. You get from Merry Christmas

darling, to Ave Maria. Clay Aiken's singing Abe Maria everybody. You better, you better

You talked about your first album. You broke records. It was like you and Celine to sit at the throne of the Christmas

Well, I sit at her feet mainly. I mean, I'm not, I don't know that I'm not near there

And that first album means me and my fiancee, my husband, when I met him, he said

I love Christmas music. And he, the first song he ever played me was, don't save it all for Christmas Day, your version

Oh, my. Not Thulines. Okay. See, I stole that from her. Because he's got the voice

that you've got. I'm a baritone. Some people can screlt and belt. And so I covered it. We covered

your song as a tribute to him and we took it way on down. Your voice, what you do with your

breath control and what you do with your range is something, is it always been that way? Is it

something that you just were like a kid and you said, let's sing and it came out? I guess. I don't know

I think so. I mean, I don't because when people talk about, I'm sitting here thinking, he's talking about

breath control and all. I know a lot of people who are very, they're incredibly well trained and

you know, they do all the warming up. Clearly, I don't. And I don't know what that means

I don't know. I don't know. I don't, it's, I'm, I'm, I guess I'm very lucky that I have no

idea what you're talking about when you say breath control. I just, I mean, I don't run out of

breath, I guess. Is that what you mean? I don't, I didn't die in the middle of the song

You just got it naturally. And you could hear it. You could hear it on the new album

You could hear it on Christmas bells are ringing. Do you look back and think about you know your life was literally shot out of a cannon and as somebody who living out and about the world was you went through a lot You were literally one of the most famous people in the world overnight The world not always

nice to people, not always kind. You have always spread so much love. Your music has been about love

You talk about the work you do with charities, if it's UNICEF, if it's Broadway cares, and how have you always stood in the adversity or what people have said, you always are a shining

bright, like you always bring such positivity. Well, that's people who don't know me, well

You know what? I just, I think I'm stubborn and unwilling. I'm sure, maybe you talk about the world being rough. I mean, obviously when I, yes, Idol was not even a hit the first season. I mean, it was hit enough to continue, right? But, oh, God. The idol was, you know, they got like nine million viewers. So none of us who went on it had any expectation that it was going to be

this huge show, right? So we, everybody says, well, you asked for it. Well, no, I didn't really

because I didn't know what I was getting into. We thought it'd be a show. We'd be on TV. It'd be

fun. Maybe we'd get to make an album and then go back home. And so, yeah, you talk about it being

overnight. And as you were saying that, I was thinking, the week after our finale, Rubin and I

came to New York and Frenchie Davis, who had been on the season with us early on

was doing rent at the time. And we both wanted to go see her

And so I guess maybe three, four days after Idol was over

we both went together to the Niederlander to see Frenchy in rent

And I've never heard of this happening before or since. They stopped the show to move us because people were turning

they weren't watching the show. They were turning around taking pictures of he and I in the audience. They moved us up to a balcony

And then they started over because it was such a, I mean, it was this global phenomenon, right

And yeah, we were completely oblivious to this. It was kind of, I mean, of course, it's fun for a minute

but you don't know what, I mean, there is other stuff that comes with it that is not as fun

And so I think I just am, you know, I was not out to myself when I did idle

I didn't even come out to myself about halfway through that show. And so I was going through that whole process on my own for the first year or so after Idle

And so that had a little bit to do with being able to put up this front of, you know

being hiding your real self, your real emotion. I mean, and I think that extended even after I came out

If I'm in a bad mood, I don't really like to show it to people. And so I guess what I'm saying is it's all a facade, Robert

It's not nice at all. It's all fake, everyone. You should see the tantrum he threw before this interview

Well, I appreciate you. And our community and me and as this little blonde hair

blue-eyed little singer who's trying to, I saw you and I saw your journey and you and your son

and the journey that you had, it gives hope and love and representation to so many people

So thank you for sharing that with us. It means a lot. You and Ruben, you talk about Ruben

he's got a Christmas album. Are we going to compete? That pisses me off

I think he has a single. He has a Christmas single. I don't think he had the whole album because I would have been very, I mean, no

We both were on the road together all year last year and I guess weren't talking to each other

He wrote this incredible Christmas song, which, you know, I say people aren't going to have another, you know, Mariah song

And then no one will. But Ruben wrote this really cashy Christmas song

He's never done a Christmas album. And I'm excited for him. We're both very musically different

We like the same types of production and performance so we can do shows together

but musically we're very different. So doing a Christmas song together. Well, that's not true

We did a whole Christmas show on Broadway together. But, you know, it's a different genre than mine, but it's really catchy

Yes, I'm excited for him. But he better not stream more than me

That'll piss me all. That's right. You know, well, you guys had fun. We love, I love when you guys, you do fun things like the, like the mass singer together

It gives me so much joy. And you're Broadway, we're on Broadway world right now

You're a Broadway baby. I mean, I remember. Lord of mercy. This film. The caricatures up at Sardis

I saw it not too long ago. It did in the bathroom because I heard they had put me in the bathroom

What about the theatrics and the drama lend to your state? I mean, you were, you were dramatic

on Idol, you're dramatic in concert and tours. You have a musical theater. I'm dramatic

I told you, it's all a facade. It's all a show. Yes. But the theater world out here

doing Broadway, doing concerts on Broadway, and then touring, you've done, if it's Maine, if it's in North Carolina

you have done musical, you did Joseph, etc. What for our Broadway fans out here

has that always been a goal of yours? Or was that something you discovered later on? No, it wasn't actually

I mean, I grew up, I think anybody, I don't know where you grew up

but you don sound like you grew up in the South Jersey Yeah I not to say I can hear it in there somewhere If you grow up outside of L or Nashville or maybe New York I guess New York would still

have it. Folks in the rest of America, you know, I think kids, high schoolers, that's their

only real access to music and performing tends to be theater, right? Because our choir teachers

in high school or we have the high school musical that we can do, you know, nobody's doing

Olivia Rodriguez songs in their high school choir, you know what I mean

So we get access to music through theater. So I did it then, but it was never necessarily a goal of mine

And actually, when I did Spam a lot, I had done it for almost a year

And we were close to the end of my run. And we were right on Schubert Alley

And my dressing room was right over Shuebert Alley. And whenever there was a new cast member in the show, if they were making their Broadway debut, all the ensemble would go out and stand in a circle in Schubert Allie, and the person who was making their Broadway debut would have to run around in a circle in their underwear, screaming, I'm making my Broadway debut. It was sort of like a hazing ritual with the ensemble. And I remember sitting my dressing room at that one night and somebody was downstairs. There was a crowd of people. And it was, I think, like November, late November

So it was cold as shit, you know? And he was running out in his underwear and he didn't care. He was so excited that he was making his Broadway debut. And I thought to myself, you know, that's, I, I, it was, I had been in the show for almost a year and I realized, holy crap, this is such a so much bigger deal than I even realized it. And I called several of my old high school teachers who had, who had always told me, oh, you're going to be on Broadway one day. And I thought, really? I don't think so. I called several of them up and and flew them up to New York

York in the last few weeks that I was on the show to have them come see it because, you know

they had sort of dreamed that for me even though I had not. So I wanted them to be able to

come watch. Well, we're here for it. We love it. We hope there's, we went, we need all the music

all of the theater. There will be no running around in my underwear in November though

not happening. Shuberd Alley, you may see Claykin running around in his underwear. You never know

We want have, has the holidays been different as a dad? Your son is 16? Yeah

20 years ago you were not a father. So now this Christmas album and Christmas with a child

is a whole different vibe. So how has it changed? How is Christmas in your house different from, you know, the first album

Yeah, I mean, I certainly have a different feeling of, oh, God

That was his first, that was his first exposure and maybe his last. I don't know if he wanted to do it again

The, you know, he's 16 now. It's not as, it's not as cutesy anymore

I do have three nephews who are a little bit younger, so we still get to have that childlike atmosphere at Christmas

But yes, it's certainly having a kid and those years when Santa was coming every Christmas

certainly gives you a very different perspective on the holiday, you know

when you are a kid and when you're a teenager and when you're an adolescent

And sometimes even when you're an adult, it's all about you, right

Christmas is, what am I getting? And when you have a kid, it certainly reinforces to you

the importance of the giving part of the holiday. And so being able to watch a Christmas morning through his eyes

was certainly eye-opening for me and changed the holiday in ways that I did not have the experience of in the first album

I'm too cynical to believe that it changed too much about this one because like I said, now he's a teenager and he just wants me to leave him alone

So it's not quite the same anymore. But certainly I have been blessed to have that experience

Well, we want to give a big thank you to you for being here. We want to give you a big thank you for the music, the joy

You've given us so many songs to sing along to. You've given us so many great memories. We're really grateful that you are here and that you've used your voice to entertain

and make us all so happy for all these years. Thank you. Oh, you're so sweet. Thank you very much

Please stream. Christmas bells are ringing. It's out and it's absolutely gorgeous

It's a classic. It's out wherever music is hurt. You've got to stream. We're going to follow Clay over on Instagram

Go to Clay Aiken so you can stay up to date. I'm sure he's got more tricks up his sleeve in the coming days

And you never know. Nobody knows because I don't know either. And thank you

Merry Christmas. Happy New Year and much love to you. Thank you. Well, there you have it

Thanks for tuning in. Next week, Leslie Odom, Jr. is going to be here

That's right. Grammy winner, Tony winner, Oscar nominee, Leslie Odom, June. Wait for it next Friday

The day after Thanksgiving. Did you get it? Wait for it. You know? Clever

That's why we're here. Check out Broadway World for all of your Broadway news

It's where Broadway gets its news. And check out the roundtable. Follow me and say hey. And I'll say hey back

And Merry Christmas. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy New Year. Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Easter

Whatever you're celebrating. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanza, whatever. Just have a happy day

And we'll be doing all sorts of Christmas fun stuff right here on the roundtable. So join me again next week

Leslie Odom Jr. will be here and more. Bye, everybody