America's Accidental Idol

Rolling Stone - USA - Less than a week after winning American Idol, David Cook is sitting in a glitzy restaurant on the south tip of Manhattan's Central Park. The chef, who proudly says he was among the 55 million who phoned in a vote for Cook during Idol's finals, presents the singer with an off-the-menu treat — foie gras on toast — that leaves Cook unnerved. "That looks dangerous," he says. "I'm a little scared." Tossing the bite-size morsel in his mouth, he chews slowly and quickly lunges for his Sprite to drown out the taste. Later, when the chef returns with a delicate flan of puréed peas, Cook looks at the plate, picks it up and sets it aside to be cleared.

Weird food isn't the only thing to have appeared in the 25-year-old's life in the week since Idol wrapped. After his upset win over teen crooner David Archuleta on May 21st, Cook jetted to New York for his first-ever visit — during which he hit Regis and Kelly and signed a record deal with 19 Recordings/RCA. Whisked around the city in a limousine, he was constantly assaulted by fans. "Sorry to bother you," said one middle-aged woman, interrupting Cook's dinner to plead with him to sign anything. "But the rest of your life is going to be like this."

Like Chris Daughtry before him, Cook has struck a (power) chord with rock fans across the country. The Idol finale brought in nearly 100 million votes, and by the next week, 11 of Cook's songs had entered Billboard's Hot 100 — more than any other artist since the Beatles in 1964. Leading the pack is his first single, "The Time of My Life," followed by many of his Idol covers, including takes on U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," Collective Soul's "The World I Know" and Lionel Richie's "Hello."

Dressed in dark jeans and a black sport jacket with the sleeves rolled up, displaying gnawed fingernails and a left forearm festooned with rubber bracelets and a single silver band engraved AC, Cook brushes off criticism about Idol's starmaking machinery. "The overnight thing is nice and romantic," he says. "But in this particular instance, it's not the case." For a decade, in bands like Axium and the Midwest Kings, Cook has busted his ass to achieve a modest goal: the ability to support himself through music. "I never got into music for the celebrity aspect," he says. "That sounds like a cliché, but it's true."

Cook was born on December 20th, 1982, in Houston. Before his second birthday, Hurricane Alicia ravaged his hometown, his father's jewelry business relocated to Independence, Missouri, and the family landed in nearby Blue Springs. Family outings were often spent at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium, where the Royals play, and Cook grew up wanting to become a major-league ballplayer. Throughout his youth and high school he was a standout pitcher, with nasty movement on his fastball. But before he entered Central Missouri State University, he injured his throwing arm — and shifted his focus to music.

"Second grade was the first time I sang in front of an audience," Cook recalls. "My music teacher, Mrs. Gentry, gave me a song called 'I Wonder' for our cowboy-themed Christmas pageant." In fifth grade, Cook picked up a violin. ("There was a girl in orchestra who I thought was cute," he says.) He officially gave it up on his 13th birthday, when his dad presented him with a brand-new Fender Stratocaster.

A summer trip to visit his grandmother and play baseball with his cousin in Kokomo, Indiana, changed Cook's life forever. "One night we were having a slumber party, and Nine Inch Nails' 'Closer' came on the radio," he says. "I was like, 'That song is so cool.' There were a lot of changes going on at that point — I'd hit a growth spurt. I went to Indiana listening to country, and I came back listening to rock." He taught himself guitar by playing along with Foo Fighters' The Colour and the Shape, Our Lady Peace's Clumsy and Green Day's Dookie. Cook found rock music at a pivotal time: When he was 11, his parents divorced, and his father relocated to Indiana. "I had a great childhood," Cook says. "I got confused for a while, but my parents made a concerted effort to make sure whatever turmoil they were experiencing didn't bleed into taking care of us." Even more devastating news came a few years later, when his older brother Adam was diagnosed with brain cancer. "He's my role model, and it's something that he's been dealing with for a while — it's not terminal," says Cook, who taped "AC" onto the Gibson Les Paul he played on Idol.