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"I constantly kind of pull from the experience of where I was at, like, right before the show. ... I think at that time I was in the top 50, but I wasn't really sure what was gonna happen, and I couldn't really make any other steps in my life. Like, I couldn't go get a full-time job or something, and so I was playing acoustic gigs,” Cook said in a phone interview from a Philadelphia tour stop.

"I think the week I moved out to L.A. for the show, I had, like, 30 bucks to my name. So, that particular vibe is something I always try to keep hold of now that money has become less of an issue.”

For Cook, whose legions of new fans can tell you he turns 26 in December, winning the smash reality TV contest in May has fundamentally altered his life, turning swanky hotels into home and moving his performances into huge arenas.

This summer, he and the other Season 7 top 10 contestants are traveling the country on the "American Idols Live!” tour. The tour stops at 7 p.m. Thursday at Oklahoma City's Ford Center and makes its final stop Sept. 13 at Tulsa's new BOK Center.

"In the short time that I was in Tulsa, I feel Tulsa's just as much responsible for where I'm at musically as Kansas City is. I mean, I found myself as a musician in Kansas City, and I found myself as a person really in Tulsa 'cause that was my first foray into kind of being self-sufficient,” he said.

Cook, who was raised in Blue Springs, Mo., moved to Tulsa about two years ago to play bar and club dates with the Midwest Kings, and later as a solo artist.

"The crowds are a little bigger, and you ... just have more resources available to you. But I don't know, part of me actually kind of misses playing the Gray Snail (Saloon in Tulsa) on a Wednesday night,” he said.

After he was declared the new "Idol” on May 21, Cook's life instantly changed. By week's end, he had a record-setting 11 tracks on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, with his first single, "The Time of My Life,” hitting No. 3. He has signed endorsement deals, performed before an NBA playoff game and started working with rock producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day).

"It hits in pockets. You know, you'll wake up in a hotel and realize, ‘OK, I couldn't have afforded this new hotel a year ago.' But I mean, it's small things, I think, that really kind of drive it home. I got my first bill the other day, and that was ... oh, that threw me out of fantasyland for a minute,” he said, adding that the bill was for "just, you know, life.”

The hotels might as well be comfortable, because they have essentially become Cook's new home. He hasn't fully broken ties with Tulsa. Nor has he moved elsewhere.

"If anything, I'm homeless for the first time in my life, so I haven't really made any firm decisions on where I want to end up. I mean, I've got family and friends in Kansas City; I've got friends in Tulsa. You know, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

While on the road, he has been working on his debut album, due out in November.

"We're writing as we're recording, and I actually think we're like seven or eight songs into the tracking process. We're going to track out about 20 songs and narrow it down from there for the record. But yeah, we're actually ahead of schedule right now, knock on wood,” he said.

Neither the album nor his band have been named, though Cook announced on his My-Space blog that Midwest Kings lead guitarist Neal "Doctor” Tiemann has joined his band.

"I'm writing wherever I'm at, meeting with a lot of people for co-writes. ... A lot of the tracking is being done in L.A. But vocals on the records, until I get off the road, are probably gonna be done wherever I'm at,” Cook said.

Cook, who has reportedly collaborated with Collective Soul's Ed Roland and Our Lady Peace's Raine Maida, promised a rock album with "some twists and turns.”

"I want it to be interesting. I don't want a listener to feel they can just skip a song, so in that regard, I want to make a ‘record record.' I want this to be an album that has a flow to it and every song has a purpose, whether it's a single or not.”

He won't start performing his new material until after the "Idols” tour wraps, sticking with his most popular covers from the show and some personal favorites until then.

The final "Idol” tour date promises to be an exciting one, since it will be just the third show to come to the new BOK Center, which was just a construction site when Cook left Tulsa for Hollywood.

"I really hope that people come out to the show,” Cook said. "And I hope that people really understand that I do have a very big place in my heart for Tulsa. I mean, it's probably one of the most integral aspects of who I am today, so you know, hopefully, it's the first of many shows to come.”

Article courtesy of NewsOK.com

By Brandy McDonnell
Entertainment Writer

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