Casey James: 'You don't always get the chance to do what you want to do'
5/21/2010 01:22:00 PM
kenmouse
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American Idol contestants often say that you don't really get to know them by watching the show. If that has been true for anybody from Season 9, it has been especially true for Casey James, the guitar-wielding Texan who finished third. From the very start, Idol portrayed him as cougar bait, as eye candy for the women -- getting him to take off his shirt during his audition; playing up Kara DioGuardi's unseemly, apparent infatuation; and finally saddling him with a sentimental ballad in John Mayer's Daughters while telling him his audience was women and girls.By forcing Casey into that persona, Idol lost the chance to showcase one of the most musically diverse performers the show has ever seen, someone whose background ranges from bluegrass to heavy metal. Now that he's finished with the competition, Casey seems ready to break out of the mold. I talked with him briefly Thursday afternoon as he was on his way to tape his appearance for Ellen.
Aaron Kelly said he talked to you about coming to Nashville -- I think he likes the idea of having someone in town he knows. How good a fit would Nashville be for you?
Casey James: I think it'd be great. It just depends on which direction I want to go musically as to where I end up geographically. No matter what I do, there's going to be a lot of blues influence in it. Whether that means I'm going to be doing some rock/country/blues mixture, or flip it around and do something a little different.
There's so much to be said about production and engineering of an album. It really depends on which producers and engineers that I work with as to what the record ends up sounding like. You can make material sound so different just be remixing it and changing things up.
You had some of your best moments on the show with ballads -- Jealous Guy, Don't!, even Daughters -- but it always seemed like there was a rougher edge to you waiting for a chance to get out.
I love to rock out. Believe it or not, the band that I just made a CD with is pretty much rock. It's a modern-day Southern rock deal. There's a huge side of me that loves to do that. On another side is blues, and another side is country and then ballads and acoustic-type things.
I've been in a bluegrass band, I've been in a heavy metal band, I've been in a rock band, I've been in a blues band, I've been in a country band, I've been an acoustic act. A lot of the music that I write, I write different type stuff: If I'm at a country venue and I do it, everybody goes, "What a great country song!" If I'm at a blues venue and I sing it, they go, "What a great blues song!" It's really just interpretation of the music.
There's definitely a rougher edge. That's something I love to do, as well.
Why didn't we see more of the rougher, louder Casey on the show?
The opportunity never presented itself. That's one of the things about the show that people don't see. You don't always get the chance to do what you want to do. You have to work within the confines of the show. It's an amazing thing, and that's all part of it. If it had presented itself, and I could have done something that I felt was me and was heavier and more rock-y, then I totally would have done it. It just didn't get to work out that way.
There was a rumor that you were going to do a song with more tempo on Tuesday night but had to change it -- is that true?
Things switched up. I'm happy with the way everything turned out, because I love both the songs. Everything was just the way it should have been. I was going to possibly do another song, and then I ended up not. That's all part of it. That's the way it goes -- that's just normal operating procedure.
Did you consider doing Stevie Ray Vaughan's Pride and Joy?
That would have been a crowd-pleaser, but I would have lost all my musical credibility if I had done that song. As a musician, there are certain songs you just don't do unless you're going to switch it up, in which case you better be somebody, and I'm not, so ...
Wednesday, when you sang Daughters as your exit song, you had a touching moment where you walked into the audience, picked up a little girl and wound up singing behind the judges table. Who was that girl?
That was my cousin's daughter, Lindy, who I watch from time to time. Me and her and her brother, Jaron -- that was the boy sitting right next to her -- I just love them very much. They're super-good kids.
When I started the song, I was prepared and everything, but, not having my guitar, it was, like, oh, you know ... And then I realized, "Wait a minute! I can walk around!" So I started walking.
Lindy had been wanting to give me a hug all day. Being a little girl who doesn't understand show business, she doesn't know that I can't go out and give her a hug. All she knows is that I'm not. When I saw her, I was, like, "Oh, yeah, I'm outta here, they can't tell me not to give my little cousin a hug!" It worked out really perfect. I'm so glad that it worked out that way.
As soon as you did that, my readers started saying, "Oh, now he moves around!"
I'm a guitar player. If I'm playing a lead, I move around tons. You watch a show, I am never, ever still. But when you've got a minute and a half to sing, you don't have any lead breaks, so you have to stand in front of that microphone. It is what it is. You can't have your cake and eat it, too. I can either sing you a song or I can move around, unless I've got a head mic on.
Did that make you feel hamstrung?
I didn't feel hamstrung at all. Music is music. I think sometimes it's warranted, sometimes it's not. So I didn't feel hamstrung at all. I got around enough -- intros to songs and some leads. I felt really blessed that I got to do as much as I did. I didn't figure it would even be that much.
You had a couple consecutive weeks in the bottom three. Did that put some pressure on you, make you feel like you needed to change some things?
Absolutely not. And I don't mean that I wasn't concerned.
Going into this, from day one, I had made up my mind to just do what I do and be happy in the Lord with the results, you know what I mean? If I start doing things to try to get somewhere on the show, that's when I lose who I am artistically and I lose my self-respect. I wasn't going to play that game.
A lot of people thought you got the short end of the production stick Tuesday -- singing first, not getting a lot of special staging and lighting. By the time the choir hit the stage for Lee DeWyze and Hallelujah, I knew there was no way you were going to make the finale. Did you have a moment like that this week, where you looked at what was going on and went, "Oh, I'm in trouble here"?
Nah, everything happens for a reason, and it works out the way it's supposed to work out. I don't concern myself with any of that. In my mind, I'm exactly where I need to be, and I've never been more happy.
Where do you want to go from here?
I've been blessed that I made it into a TV show that gives you massive exposure as an artist. Even though you don't get the full extent, you do get to present yourself a little bit. Because of that, I'll get to do what I want to do, which is music.
The show is great. The TV show is one thing, and that's been the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life. But now I can do music for real -- full songs, do an album and really get started with my career.
It'll be nice knowing you don't have to have a day job for a while.
You know what? My day job was always music. If I have to go back to playing music, that's what I was going to do anyway.
The only thing that'll change is that I won't be playing for people who are trying to a) get drunk, or b) find a woman or man, or c) hit somebody. Hopefully, I'll be playing for people who are there to hear me play and that have respect for me as an artist.
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