Sunday, March 22, 2009

Alexis Grace: "I figured I'd stay in the game a little bit longer"

During the media conference call with Alexis Grace, one reporter asked her if she thought the judges would have saved her if she could’ve sung another song besides “Jolene.” I was a little surprised that people actually thought that her performance made any difference, because I don’t believe it did. I think the judges honestly considered a save, but they knew it was just too soon.

I was glad to hear that even Alexis herself understood that when she said, “In all honestly, I don’t know if they still would have chosen me, just because it’s so early in the game. I feel like they would probably want to use the save for later on in the show.”

Here are a few of the other things Alexis had to say during her conference call…

On what she’s going to do next: “I’m going to go back home and spend some time with my family first. And then I’m going to get to work and start talking about recording some music and trying to get it out there and just continue singing.”

On her results show performance: “No, I think I was just, what I was feeling the second night. I just went up there and sang what I was feeling. It wasn’t like I was trying to be anything or do anything a certain way. I just wanted to show them that I wanted to stay.”

On what she learned on the show: “I learned that if you want to do anything in life, if you want to pursue a dream, that you have to work hard at it and believe in yourself for one thing and just have fun with whatever it is that you want to do. And remember everything and just the little clichĂ© things that you could say, it’s really true.”

On the judges telling her they considered saving her: “No, I liked the fact that they told me that they were thinking about saving me because they let me know that they actually believe in me and that they think that I can do it.”

On other songs she considered doing: “I had a couple, but I did consider doing a Carrie Underwood song, but there were already two other people who sang Carrie Underwood, so I felt that it would be too much Carrie Underwood in one night. So then I went with “Jolene” because that was a really beautiful song. I loved the lyrics. I like the singer and so I thought it was a good song for me to do.”

A reporter really pushed her to divulge what song she was going to do for Motown Week, but she said she wasn’t allowed to say…

On the kind of CD she’d like to record: “I think kind of like some soul mixed in with blues and country. I kind of like the three combined together.”

On her reaction to being eliminated: “I was, I was disappointed because I’d imagine myself going farther than that. It was a little bit surprising to myself, not surprising because I kind of had a feeling that I would be in the bottom, but I never imagined myself going home that early. I figured I’d stay in the game a little bit longer, so I was disappointed a little bit, because I made it that far. It’s like I want to make it a little bit farther at least.”

On a deadline to stop pursing her dream: “No, not really, not unless maybe like when I’m in my 50s and then I’ll give up. But the Rolling Stones are still playing, so that would be pretty awesome.”


On whether she was surprised to be in the bottom three: “I knew before we even got there. I knew the night of the show that I would be in the bottom three. I just knew it, got a feeling from what the judges said and just the way the night went, I just had a feeling.”


Before the end of the call, one reporter asked her to give a final message to her fans: “I just want to say thank you guys. Because of you, I made it this far and you guys rock and I definitely want to not disappoint you and get out there and keep working and keep singing and making music for you guys. I really appreciate everything that you’ve done. I really do. I love you guys.”

And the goodbye party that we saw during Wednesday’s results show? Alexis didn’t get one. She told the reporters, “Well, they were really busy last night. They had a lot going on and there wasn’t one.”

My guess is that the “a lot going on” was the Idols’ trip to Detroit to visit “Hitsville U.S.A.,” the original home of Motown.

By the way, you can get more of my thoughts on why the judges didn’t save Alexis in my column in Tuesday’s edition of “The Herald-Dispatch”…

Photo Credit: Ray Mickshaw/FOX