An Idol Tracker's journey ends

Forgive me for interrupting regularly scheduled Idol news with some personal business, but I have an announcement to make to Idol Tracker readers. Tuesday will be my last day with the L.A. Times and thus my stint as the L.A. Times' Idol Tracker comes to an end.

It has been an amazing three years covering the most important spectacle in the history of the world.  Three years ago, when we started the Show Tracker blog, I volunteered to write the occasional review of the occasional episode of "Idol," never imagining my life would disappear down the "Idol" rabbit hole.  But then I came face to face with the incredible stories of these young people, these warriors of song, who every year risked the worst fate any of us can imagine -- public humiliation before tens of millions -- all for a shot at their dreams.  I also got to meet the incredibly talented group of people who put the show together and on so many occasions was allowed to peek backstage at what goes into creating a goliath like "Idol."

So many memories from three years on the "Idol" beat.  Come with me now on a little stroll down Memory Boulevard, as we visit an Idol Tracker's greatest days, with a few of the pictures and videos I've snapped over the years.  Ah, yes, I remember it well ....

Video: The Fallen are unveiled with Carly Smithson

At a press conference today in Hollywood, Carly Smithson was unveiled as the lead singer of The Fallen, featuring Ben Moody and former members of Evanescence.   Below is a low quality video of their first single "Bury Me" which is now available for download at wearethefallen.com.

Q and A's with Carly Smithson and new bandmate Ben Moody

Today the greatest Idol in history, Carly Smithson, came forth with her long awaited announcement of the next phase in her musical journey, revealing she has joined a band to be called The Fallen, with the original members of Evanescence.

We spoke with Ben Moody, formerly of Evanescence, and Carly by phone on Tuesday.

Q and A with Ben Moody

Q: How are you today?
BM:I am so excited and if you were in the studio, you’d be excited too. 
 Last night we recorded strings to our first single Bury Me Alive.   Incredible. It’s been very difficult to keep something like this a secret. Especially since it has consumed all of our lives.

Carly Smithson to join forces with ex-Evanescence musicians to become the Fallen

In its eight seasons, most of “American Idol’s” 90-some alumni have gravitated toward solo careers, trying to capitalize on the name recognition the show brought them. One recent contestant’s journey is about to take a different turn, however, when she gives up her solo status to join a rock band.

Carly Smithson, “American Idol” Season 7’s intense Irish rocker, is scheduled to announce Monday that she will become the lead singer of the Fallen, a group led by three former members of Evanescence. 

In addition to Smithson, the Fallen will include Evanescence lead guitarist and co-songwriter Ben Moody, along with Rocky Gray and John Lecompt. Completing the lineup is Marty O’Brian, who was not in Evanescence.

Founded by Moody and singer Amy Lee — who bears more than a passing resemblance to the raven-haired Smithson — in their early teens, Evanescence sold 15 million copies worldwide of their 2003 album “Fallen.”

Immediately after their success, however, the band was rent by personal disagreements, ultimately leading one-by-one to the departure of their founding lineup. 

In a phone interview, Moody described the band’s slow-motion split, recalling that back in 2003 he, Gray and Lecompt discussed their issues with Lee. “This thing,” he recalled saying, “is going in a different direction, and we all love the music that we make together.’ And we all contemplated doing it with someone else. But the timing wasn’t right.”

Post-Evanescence, Moody worked with artists as varied as Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion and “Idol” contestants Chris Daughtry and Kelly Clarkson.

On finale eve, Idols of years past gather and compare notes

Every May as the world convenes in front of TV sets to choose our new pop despot, a certain college of cardinals gathers around the main stage. For the 80-some singers who have stood on the "Idol" stage before, finale time is like a giant family reunion, a time to reconnect with their comrades in arms, with whom one, two or six years ago they fought through a bloody season and toured the nation before being scattered to the four winds to seek their fates in the swirling tides of contemporary music.

On finals eve, the gathering place of this fabled fraternity was in a off-the-map basement on the opposite edge of downtown from the Nokia. On Monday night, the Edison bar was the scene of the most intimate of "Idol" conclaves as about two dozen Idols past gathered for a party thrown by Fox Radio to celebrate the finals.

Into a quiet alley, down a long stairwell, one found a cozy little gathering where Kimberley Locke and Bo Bice, Diana DiGarmo and Hayly Scarnato, Melinda Doolittle and Jason Castro hobnobbed with those few who have walked the lonely path of the American Idol. And talking with them, one gets a sense of the many directions a post-"Idol" career can go.

Michael Johns and Carly Smithson return to the Idoldome

On Wednesday night's elimination show, Season 8 contestants got their first glimpse of the glory that awaits those who make it through these brutal semifinal rounds as they were visited by the two greatest performers in "American Idol" history, Michael Johns and Carly Smithson. One year after they sat among the 24 nervously awaiting their fate, wondering whether ignominy or stardom awaited each night, Michael and Carly returned for the first time to the room where their careers as we know them were born -- utterly transformed in that brief whirlwind year since.

We spoke by phone with the pair minutes after they stepped off the Idoldome stage.

MICHAEL JOHNS
Q: How are you doing?
MJ: It was definitely strange being back there but a good strange. It's always good singing me and Carly, so it was great.

Q: Tell me about your day, returning to the Idoldome.
MJ: We got there about 12:30 for dress rehearsals.  It was just weird being back there and going, wow, that was a year ago and the way that everyone treats you now, from [producers] Ken [Warwick] to Nigel Lythgoe.  Now you're a peer almost. It was very cool.

Q: Is it hard to picture that just a year ago you were one of the 24?
MJ:  No, it feels so distant now. I mean, tonight was a blood bath for those kids. I just felt for them.  You go home and go, phew.

Q: Did you talk to the kids at all?
MJ: I did, I spoke to some of them. I really like the blond girl with the pink hair, Alexis. I think she's great. But they were so nervous, mate. It's not like two people were going home. It was nine out of 12 kids. That's pretty tough, so we didn't really talk to them much. We kind of let them be.

Q: What's it like coming back to the stage and seeing the crew again?
MJ: I really love that. I mean, [stage manager] Debbie Williams and even the people who stand in for Simon and Paula. You went through it and they are so happy to see you, asking what was going on.

Q: So tell us what you have going on?  Your album --
MJ: It's coming out. It's a real rock/soul record.  The name of the single is "Heart on My Sleeve"; that's coming out in a couple weeks. Everything is going according to plan. I can't complain. I really got everything I wanted out of "Idol." I'm really happy.

Q: The world is demanding you and Carly do a single together.  When will it happen?
MJ: It does have to happen.  We have a couple songs that we went in and worked on with Diane Warren. Then our schedules got so crazy we haven't been able to go in and do it.  That song that I cut with Brooke [White], literally I did the week after I got off tour. But after that, we've all been just slammed. 

Carly Smithson: Up From 'American Idol'

For one year, Carly Smithson lived in one of the most public bubbles on Earth.  Once the tattooed Irish rocker auditioned for "American Idol" in the summer of 2007 her life belonged to the nation as she raced through the show’s grueling stations of the cross — from the brutal tests of Hollywood week to the big stage at the Idoldome (where she was called by many the Greatest Singer in Idol History) to the bittersweet national press tour following her elimination to the finale show performing for the year’s second-largest TV audience — and finally to the 53-city summer-long "Idols Live" national jaunt to packed arenas.

And then suddenly, at the rainbow’s end, she found herself standing alone on the curb at the Burbank airport; the tour over, Season 7 disbanded and her fellow constants and comrades scattered to the winds, each to seek their fate in the cruel world of the modern music industry. And for the first time since the adventure began, Carly faced a world with no show day looming, no rapid-fire song choices, no recording contract or management, no group number choreography to practice, no hair and make-up sittings, no backstage banter with her fellow contestants and, most important, no road map to a post-"Idol" future.   

It was a turning point many Idols before her had faced.  For some —the Carrie Underwoods, the Chris Daughtrys and the Jennifer Hudsons — the road led to the lasting careers, fame and riches dangled in the "American Idol" promise.  But for many more, life after "Idol" had been a journey of disappointments, misfired launches and struggles to find a place in an unforgiving entertainment landscape. 

For Smithson, arriving at this crossroads was especially poignant as she had been here before.  Six years before her "Idol" stint, Carly came to Los Angeles as a 17-year-old singer, signed by a major label, represented by the biggest management powerhouse in the business.   But that experience led to sorrow when her label melted down before her album was released, leading to the record being dumped on the market with no support — a sudden abortive seeming-end to her career before it began.  In the years that followed, Smithson left Hollywood, moving with her new husband to San Diego, where they ran a tattoo shop and she waitressed and sang in a Gaslamp Quarter pub, dreaming of a return to music — a dream that suddenly seemed possible after she auditioned for Season 7 of "American Idol."

Idol Tracker: Tour hits Carly Smithson's San Diego, where we visit hubby Todd

Immediately after the Glendale, Ariz., show, the Idols boarded buses and attempted to sleep on the long ride across the desert to San Diego, site of their second concert.  Reports seemed near unanimous that little sleeping got done on this first overnight trip as they each adjusted to their new homes for the next 52 cities and counting –- bunks on the boys' and girls' buses.  David Cook said later in the day that he had been too pumped up with adrenaline from the excitement of the Glendale show to get much sleep. In any event, by the evening, if their enthusiasm remained undimmed, it was tinged offstage with a barely perceptible bleary quality. 

Not having a berth on the bus myself, I hopped a plane to San Diego, following the path of the tour.  With time to spare before the evening’s show, I paid a visit to one of the most intriguing and little-known figures from this season, Todd Smithson, husband of Carly, the greatest singer in Idol history.

Throughout Season 7, Todd was the subject of much curiosity and a fair amount of rumor-mongering in some of the Web’s more scurrilous corners. To say he stood out among the homespun, sorority-girl-heavy audience in the Idoldome would be an understatement.  With his skater garb and his body blanketed in tattoos, face included, Todd blended into the crowd about as well as Bob Dole might fit in at the mosh pit at Lollapalooza.  At almost every show, he gamely watched his wife’s brilliant "Idol" career but gave few interviews or public appearances during the season, leaving many to judge the book entirely by its well-adorned cover.