How Michael Jackson Helped Kris Allen Win ‘American Idol’

Does your wife listen to Michael Jackson?
Oh, yeah.

Did you ever bond with her over Michael Jackson?
I don't know if we've ever bonded over Michael Jackson. Probably. Maybe in the car, dancing, taking a road trip listening to Michael Jackson.

Where were you when you heard news of his death?
We were at rehearsal for the tour. Actually, Adam was on stage. He was almost done, and I was about to go up. We heard the news and we stopped everything and we canceled the rehearsal.

Why? Out of respect?
I'd like to say that was part of it. More than anything, it was weird. The weird thing was he was in the room next to us probably a couple weeks before that. We all knew people that worked on the tour and everything. It was just weird. No one could really feel right. It was one of those moments in life when you're like what the heck just happened. I remember thinking I hope this isn't real, but if it is, Wow this is a sad day in music.

Did you ever meet him?
We never met him. I haven't heard if he saw our episode or not.

Would you have gone to seen his tour?
If I could've found a way, I would've been there.

The first song you sang live on Idol was "Man in the Mirror." How did you pick that song?
Funny story, I actually picked a song and someone else picked it. So I had to search at the last minute for another song. I was going through, they gave me a list of 1,000 songs, and it was crazy. I couldn't find one song on there that I wanted to sing. Then I took two seconds and thought: if I had to sing one song right now, what would I sing? That popped in my head. I said you: know what, I'm going to run with it. So I did.

Is it true that you mentored the other contestants during Michael Jackson week? I think Kara DioGuardi mentioned something about that.
Probably the person she was referring to was Allison [Iraheta]. Obviously, I'm probably going to know more about Michael Jackson than Allison. Because I'm a little older. He was definitely more my time than her time. I was listening to a bunch of stuff, and I wanted to do "Give In to Me," but I didn't think it would work for me. I said do you know who would really good on this? Allison. I shot it at her. I was like, Allison, just listen to this song and tell me if you want to do it. She went and listened to it and ran back into the room and was like, "Yes! Of course I want to do this."

If you could pick one Michael Jackson song to listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I really, really like "Leave Me Alone." It's always been one of my favorites. But I don't know if you pick just one favorite Michael song.

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