New father Clay Aiken comes out from the closet
Raleigh, N.C. Clay Aiken became a father Friday morning with the birth of a baby boy, his mother told WRAL’s Lynda Loveland in an exclusive interview. At the same time he finally admits that he is gay.
He said that he can’t raise a child and keep on lying to everyone about himself. That is not what you want to teach your child, to lie.
Kudos to Clay.
Biography: As the second-place contestant on Fox TV’s second season of American Idol, vocalist Clay Aiken wowed television audiences with his Southern charm, sweet demeanor, and powerful tenor voice, all of which combined to make him a pop star.
Clay Aiken is an American pop singer who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003.
Although his American Idol activities temporarily delayed his academic pursuits, Aiken completed his course work while on tour and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in special education in December 2003.
Based on album sales surpassed only by Idol winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, Aiken has become the most successful male and the most successful runner-up in that show’s history.
Clay Aiken was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina.
This spring, Aiken released his fourth album, On My Way Here, his first album of original songs since his 2003 chart topping, double platinum debut Measure of a Man.
“I thought if we could find songs along those lines, that deal with my life over the past five years and what I’ve learned from my experiences, it would be a great concept for an album,” Aiken says.
In the years following his American Idol appearance, Aiken has launched eight tours, authored a New York Times best-selling book Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life with Allison Glock, and was the executive producer for a 2004 televised Christmas special, A Clay Aiken Christmas.
Since shooting to stardom on the second season of American Idol, the 29-year-old Raleigh, NC native with the powerhouse voice has become an international pop phenomenon who has sold six million copies of his three best-selling albums: the double-platinum Measure of A Man, 2004’s holiday CD Merry Christmas With Love , and the gold-certified A Thousand Different Ways — a 2006 collection of 10 covers and four originals that earned Aiken the distinction of being the fourth artist ever to have his first three albums debut in the Top 5 on the Billboard chart.
Later that year, Aiken won the Fan’s Choice Award at the American Music Awards ceremony, and his CD single “This Is the Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water” won the Billboard award for the Best-Selling Single of 2003.
Aiken made television appearances on Good Morning America, The View, The Today Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Insider, Extra!, E!, CNN, ABC Nightline, Fox News, and CBS News Path, all the week of release.
In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season of American Idol, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed for the first time that Aiken had led the fan voting every week from the Wild Card week to the finale, when the possibly-random voting result gave Studdard the win.
A cast of actors, dancers and back-up singers traveled with the tour, and members of local theater groups were added in each venue for smaller, non-speaking roles and crowd scenes.
Tune in tonight to catch Clay Aiken’s performance of On My Way and interview with Jay re-airing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
The message of the lyrics — how the lessons we learn while growing up shape us into who we become as adults — struck such a deep chord with Aiken that it wound up inspiring the theme of his new collection.
