David Roland Cook (born December 20, 1982) is an American rock singer and songwriter. On May 21, 2008, he was declared the winner of the seventh season of the reality television show American Idol. His single, "The Time of My Life," is on sale on iTunes and shot too.
Early lifeCook was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Blue Springs, Missouri. His parents are Beth (née Frye) and Stan Cook. Cook's younger brother, Andrew, is an elementary education major at the University of Central Missouri, and his older brother, Adam, lives in Terre Haute, Indiana with his wife and children. Cook's parents divorced during his childhood; his mother remarried and now goes by Beth Foraker, and his father relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana.
Cook's interest in music began early in life; he received his first guitar at the age of 2. He began singing in second grade, when his elementary school music teacher gave him a solo in a school choir performance. He proceeded to perform in virtually every Christmas and PTA program. He also participated in choir and drama programs in middle school and high school. At Blue Springs South High School, he performed in musicals, including The Music Man, West Side Story, and Singin' in the Rain. He had also been an avid baseball player during high school. After losing interest in sports, he focused more on music. He earned a theater scholarship to the University of Central Missouri, but he abandoned theater after two semesters, graduating from the school in 2006 with a degree in graphic design. While in college, he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa. After his college graduation, he relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma to pursue his career in music, telling his family, "I just want to give myself until I'm 26 years old to get a job."
Musical backgroundCook was the lead singer and guitarist of the band Axium from 1999 until 2006. He formed Axium in his junior year of high school with drummer Bobby Kerr. One of the band's songs, "Hold," was picked up by AMC Theatres Movie Tunes and was played before previews on over 20,000 screens nationwide. Axium was also named one of the top 15 independent bands in the country in the "Got Milk?" independent band contest, and it was chosen as the best band in Kansas City in 2004.
In 2006, after the breakup of Axium, Cook relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and joined the regional touring band Midwest Kings, playing guitar, bass, and singing backup vocals. He recorded one EP, Incoherent with Desire to Move On, with the band in 2006. He also worked as a bartender at several Tulsa clubs, including Blank Slate and Rehab Lounge.
Cook released a solo independent album, Analog Heart, in 2006, the year he graduated from the college. It was written from 2004 to 2006, and he designed the artwork as well. The album was chosen as the fourth-best CD released in 2006 by website Music Equals Life. Cook also won the Urban Tulsa Weekly's "Absolute Best of Tulsa" award for "Best Locally Produced, Independent Album" in 2007. He had completed recording his sophomore album before his appearance on American Idol. Over the weekend of April 18 to April 20, 2008, Analog Heart was listed as the number one album for "Today's Top MP3 Albums" on Amazon.com. Soon there after, the album was removed from Amazon.
American IdolOverviewCook auditioned for American Idol in Omaha, Nebraska, performing Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer." He originally did not plan to try out for the show as he was going on a trip to China; he came to the auditions initially to support his younger brother Andrew (who did not make it to Hollywood) and then decided to try out himself. For his first Hollywood audition, Cook performed "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" by Bryan Adams, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. Later in the week he performed "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain.
Cook has taken advantage of the decision to allow contestants to play musical instruments. Besides his Hollywood audition, he also accompanied himself on electric guitar for his performances of "All Right Now," "Hello," "Day Tripper," "I'm Alive," "Baba O'Riley," "Dare You to Move," and "Dream Big," and on acoustic guitar for "Little Sparrow," "All I Really Need Is You," and "The World I Know." His white, left-handed Gibson Les Paul electric guitar has the letters "AC" on it; as Cook told TV Guide, "I have two brothers, Adam and Andrew. So, because of superstition, I put their initials on everything growing up." Since the Top 12 week, he has also been wearing an orange wristband to support a 7-year-old fan, Lindsey Rose, with leukemia.
"Billie Jean," one of his performances, was highly praised by all three judges, especially Simon Cowell. Cowell later said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the performance "was in a different league to anything we've heard on the season so far," and although he knew where the arrangement came from, "that doesn't really matter." The performance received well over 1 million views on YouTube. Another of Cook's performances, "Day Tripper", was credited to Whitesnake. Seattle-based band Doxology has claimed that Cook's performance of "Eleanor Rigby" was based on a version the band recorded over a year ago. On April 1, before performing his self-arranged rendition of "Little Sparrow" on American Idol, Cook responded to Ryan Seacrest in the interview session, revealing that his performance of "Eleanor Rigby" was based on Neil Zaza's and Doxology's versions. He also reiterated the credits of Whitesnake and Chris Cornell. Despite the controversy, critics praised Cook for choosing versions of songs that fit his vocal style. His arrangements of "Hello," "Little Sparrow," "Always Be My Baby," "All I Really Need Is You," "Baba O'Riley," "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" were original arrangements.
On April 1, 2008, a few hours after American Idol aired, TMZ.com reported that Cook was rushed to the hospital because his "heart was palpitating at a high rate and his blood pressure was high." The website claimed that Cook was not feeling well before the performance of Dolly Parton's "Little Sparrow" that night, but he had refused to go to the emergency room until the end of the show. Stress over a recent "setback" in his brother Adam's struggle with brain cancer may have been a contributing factor. Subsequently, David Cook was released from the hospital and is so far doing fine.
Cook was declared the winner of American Idol season 7 on May 21, 2008, receiving 56% of the votes and beating runner-up David Archuleta by 12 million votes. Cook then sang "The Time of My Life", the winning song of the 2008 American Idol Songwriter's Competition, which will also be Cook's first single. The single is available right now on iTunes. He is the fifth winner to have never been named in the bottom 2 or 3 in votes during his run on the show. He is also the third male winner.
Along with season 2 winner Ruben Studdard, Cook is the second winner to have won the title after performing first during the top two performances. During the finale of season 7 of American Idol, Cook appeared in a commercial for the game franchise Guitar Hero, mimicking Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Fellow finalist David Archuleta also appeared in a separate but similar commercial parodying the same scene.
Post-Idol careerLess than 24 hours following Cook's victory, Cook had the top four selling songs on iTunes, with his debut single "The Time of My Life" at 1. His versions of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "The World I Know", and "Dream Big" were the other three songs.
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