OUT EAST END
Checking in with Clay Aiken
Former Idol star discusses return to the stage
BY ANGELA LAGRECA
Clay Aiken says he will
never forget “the moment
backstage before the fi -
nale” of “American Idol”
with his competitor, Ruben Studdard.
“We were standing back there
waiting to walk out for the very
last time and fi nd out who won,
and Ruben looked at me and said,
“Look at us. Two of the least likely
people to win this show — look at
the two of us, right here,” recalls
Aiken, with a laugh. “I was like,
‘Oh hell, you’re right. We did this.’
I think we both knew that in itself
was kind of something special,
too.”
That was 20 years ago, and
though Studdard beat out Aiken
by 134,000 votes out of the 24
million votes cast that night (the
two have been good, close friends
Clay Aiken is performing on stage July 15 at Calissa, a Mediterranean restaurant in Water Mill.
since), Aiken, who grew up in Raleigh,
North Carolina, went on to
CLAY AIKEN
international stardom, scoring a
record deal with RCA, selling millions
of records, topping the Billboard
charts, touring for years,
starring on Broadway in Spamalot,
and making numerous concert and
television appearances. In 2014 he
made a run for offi ce to be a US
Representative of North Carolina
(he won the Democratic primary
and lost to the incumbent).
These days, Aiken says he doesn’t
sing much publicly anymore — but
on July 15 he will be performing at
Calissa, the Mediterranean restaurant
in Water Mill, when he kicks
off a summer-long series Broadway
Out East featuring a star-studded
lineup of Broadway artists, musicians,
and entertainers.
“It’s sort of rare, actually,” says
Aiken, who notes that his “main
job at the moment” is raising his
13-year-old son and “singing occasionally,
depending on how
I’m feeling.” He also moderates
a weekly political podcast called
How the Heck We All Gonna Get
Along? When he takes the stage in
the outdoor courtyard at Calissa,
his fans will be witness to another
least likely moment, and a fi rst for
Aiken.
“I have not done a public performance
this intimate ever before,”
Aiken says. The shows at Calissa
seat 125 people, a far cry from the
large venues and concert halls
Aiken is used to. “I’ve done a few
private events that have been sort
of similar, but I’ve never done anything
publicly with just me and
piano that’s not been in a real theater,”
he admits. “It’s kind of exciting
to me and I’m honestly a little
bit nervous.”
We checked in with Aiken via
phone in Raleigh, North Carolina
to talk with him about his upcoming
gig at Calissa (only his second
time in the Hamptons) and what
life has been like since “Idol.”
When did you last sing in public,
and what brings you out to
the Hamptons?
I think I did a public performance
in 2015 and not another one until
Ruben and I did the show together
on Broadway in 2018.
I certainly don’t dislike it — I did
it for a long time, 11 years on the
road. It lost the spark for me and so
I don’t really have the personality to
constantly want to live on the road
and be doing it. I stop and after a
while I’m like, “You know what, I
want to sing,” and feel I miss it.
I actually was scheduled to do
a theatrical show this summer in
Pittsburgh. It was supposed to be
last summer and it got canceled
and postponed due to COVID and
then it got postponed again this
summer, and I was like, “crap.”
My musical director (Ben Cohn,
also the musical director for ”Dear
Evan Hansen” on Broadway) is
friends with the people at Calissa
and knew they were doing this series.
They had gotten to the point
where everyone is—how do we
continue to have our business successful
and how do we run and operate
in this environment?
The fact that this business was
trying to make it work with the
restrictions that were in place
and do these outdoors events and
space people correctly — I empathize
with that and wanted to be
involved and help if I could.
It gave me a chance to do one of
those things that people said you
➤ AIKEN, continued on p.21
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