Kris Allen: "I'm nuts"

The first thing I have to tell you about Kris Allen is that he is so cute in person, I wanted to cry. The minute he walked into the room, I thought I was going to faint. And when he sat down next to me, well, I’m not sure how I even put words together.

Although I should probably note that I eliminated all of the gigging from the interview transcript…

From the moment Kris sat down, he looked like he could fall over asleep at any minute, but he graciously answered all of my questions—including an answer that threw me for such a loop I ended up taking us on a tangent that led to the reigning American Idol telling me I’m not normal.

It was a completely surreal—and awesome—moment. And a tape I will keep forever…

Angela: Does this get old everyday? You can tell me.

Kris: I don’t know. I mean, it’s different everywhere, so it’s fun. I think we’re having a lot of fun.

A: We only have a few minutes so I’ve got to get right to it. Tell me about the album.

K: Um, it is coming out hopefully in the middle of November. That’s what we’re pushing for. We don’t have a complete date yet, but it is coming out. The single will be out pretty soon and everything’s looking good right now. Doing a lot of writing and spending a lot of time with different artists doing a lot of writing and stuff like that so it’s good.

A: Can you name drop a little bit for me?

K: I can name drop a couple. You know, I’ve worked with Joe King of The Fray. I’ve worked with Mat Kearney and probably that’s the only two I will name. And different songwriters.

A: So if you were to define it as a certain style?

K: I mean, it’s definitely you know in the, it would definitely be in the—I mean, I hate saying this—but it will be in that pop/rock genre, I would say. But that’s so huge though, so something in there, yeah.

A: Do you ever get tired of people calling you a winner?

K: No, [laughs], I mean, no. As long as they’re not calling me a wiener, I’m good.

A: So what’s the feeling when you take the stage every night, different town, people screaming your name?

K: You know, every show’s different. But more than anything, it’s exciting. You know? That like we, I don’t know. We were always like, I don’t know. It’s crazy to think about when you get up on the stage and people are screaming for you. They actually care about you and they feel like they know you and they kind of went through this journey with you. To know that fifteen, ten thousand people are cheering for you and actually care about what you’re doing? That’s a very cool feeling. Yeah.

A: Do you have a favorite moment from the tour so far?

K: My favorite moment, we did the show in Little Rock, my hometown, and that was by far one of the best moments of my life. I was, you know, in the tour, I come out of the stage with a big dramatic montage, light, smoke. And in most places they cheer for a while and it’s good. But in Arkansas, they would not shut up. They just kept cheering for like five minutes straight. And they got louder, and louder, and louder, so it was very cool.

A: How’s your family handling everything?

K: My family’s great. They’re kind of getting back to a normal life which is good for them.

A: Is it crazy for you because I know you’re recording while on tour, so that must be [noise that means frazzled]?

K: It’s crazy. First, it was, it was almost hard to deal with at first because you’re switching. You’re on tour mode most of the time, and then one day you have to switch over to the other—writing and recording mode. And it’s a totally different monster. It really is. And so doing these things at the same time was really weird at first. But I’ve gotten used to it and it’s getting fun. It really is. It makes me excited that I actually have an album coming out in November. That’s very exciting.

A: What’s the number one question people ask you at these things?

K: [laughs] Probably the number one question would be either how’s the tour going or how’s your wife doing.

A: They don’t ask you what Simon’s really like and that stuff?

K: Oh we get that. We get, Is Simon really mean?

A: And you tell them, yes, yes he is.

K: No, they know. He’s really not that mean. Truthful, but he’s not mean.

A: So Megan says you all get along. True? Now, tell me the real story.

K: I will tell you the real story. Here’s the scoop. [Dramatic pause] We do.

A: Come on.

K: I’m serious. We all really do get along. We have a good time together. And we’ve talked about this for a while, the tour’s almost over actually. For us it is anyway. And it’s going to be a sad day. It really is. We’ve had a great time. You know, I think we’re all really excited to start our careers and whatever, but we’ve been together for almost the past year with each other and we’ve lived in the same house, riding on the same bus. 24 hours pretty much with each other and so we have a great time together. If we didn’t get along, this would be a horrible, horrible time.

A: So part of you really wants it to end so you can move on and part of you is like, no, wait, what am I going to do without these people?

K: Absolutely. Exactly. We were like, we’re going to have to do dinner together like every month.

A: So much has been written about you, you’ve done so many interviews, what’s one thing that you want people to know, whether you’ve told it before, whatever, what would it be?

K: I hate this question.

A: I’m sorry.

K: That’s okay. I don’t know. I think that, what’s the one thing that people should know about me? People ask me what’s one thing that we don’t know about you. And probably the one thing that a lot of people don’t know about me is that I had a rib taken out when I was 13.

A: Oh wow. [Pauses to figure out what to say next] Almost like an Adam and Eve kind of thing?

K: Kind of. Except for no person was made out of this one. Hopefully, not that I know of anyway.

A: When you’re recording and on the tour at the same time, you probably wouldn’t mind cloning yourself.

K: Maybe. That’d be nice. I don’t wanna make me though. I don’t think the world could deal with two of me. I couldn’t deal with two of me. I’m nuts.

A: You’re nuts?

K: Yeah. I know I don’t seem it, but I really am.

A: Now, you’ve got to expand on that. What do you mean by that?

K: I’m not normal.

A: Okay.

K: But who is? Are you normal?

A: No.

K: There we go. You don’t seem like a normal person.

A: Thanks, Kris, I appreciate that.

K: It’s a compliment, I promise. Because what is normal? Normal’s not cool. Normal’s boring. People would say I’m boring, though.

A: See, I don’t believe that.

K: Until you get to know me. And I feel like we’ve gotten to know each other.

A: [sees the publicist hold up her finger] That’s my signal.

K: [laughs] Thank you.

A: Kris, it was a pleasure to meet you.

K: Nice seeing you.

A: I look forward to seeing you tonight.

K: Pleasure to meet you.