'Idol' tour gives Kristy Lee chance to spread wings
By BEVERLY KEEL
Kristy Lee Cook, the country singer who was a finalist on American Idol, releases her first single, "15 Minutes of Shame," to radio today.
"It's a lot of fun and a lot of people enjoy that song just for the lyrics alone because everybody has had that somebody who has lied to them and hurt them," she says.
Kristy Lee is currently on the American Idol tour, where
she's received words of encouragement from former Idol champ Carrie Underwood. "She was really sweet. She hung out backstage and told us we were really good."
Kristy Lee says Idol was wonderful preparation for a career in the music industry.
"I learned on that show I was kind of a different person; everybody pretty much was," she says. "But I learned you've got to do what you've got to do and not worry about what everybody else says."
She's been allowed to unveil a different side of her performance during the Idol tour that she was unable to reveal during the TV series. "I didn't get to show the side of me that I am performance-wise and vocally," she says. "I didn't get to sing those kinds of songs.
"People now are getting to see the real side of me that I should have showed on the show. There wasn't time and it didn't work out. You've got to bring that out in whatever you do."
As she survived week-by-week on the show, her confidence grew. "Doing something that big and getting criticized all the time always makes you stronger —plus I was in the bottom three a lot," she says. "Being part of that whole situation was a learning experience and makes you grow up and realize what hard work is."
The Oregon native sold her barrel horse to pay for her trip to Philadelphia to audition for Idol. "It definitely was the right decision," she says. "You can always buy another horse, even though I was attached to that one. I wouldn't have gotten to where I am today if it weren't for him."
Kristy Lee's single, which some stations began playing early, will be available for digital purchase Tuesday at iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody. Her Sony BMG album, Why Wait, will be released Sept. 16.
"It sounds like an album that would be mine," she says. "It's got some really fun up-tempo country songs on it. It's got some really nice power ballads on it and some mid-tempos. Obviously the single is an up-tempo."
'Idol' tour gives Kristy Lee chance to spread wings | www.tennessean.com | The Tennessean
thanks to Ver for the set! iloveit.
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