Yes, I saw Clay Aiken.

I've been found out as an American Idol geek. I have watched the show every season since the first one, and actually wanted Justin Guarini to win instead of Kelly Clarkson. Obviously I should not be allowed to have my own record label for this reason.

Still, I've never actually bought an album by any AI folks, or seen any of them in concert. Until this weekend. Since our trip to Ann Arbor was cancelled, I decided to take my mom to see Clay Aiken with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra at the Picnic with the Pops. She's always said that she loved his voice, and I think she actually does own one of his CDs.

Clay was touring in support of his latest album, which is a cover album of a bunch of cheesy '80s songs. He actually did great versions of some songs that I probably shouldn't admit to knowing the words to. And his backup singers were fabulous. There was just one place it went wrong. As the Columbus Dispatch put it:

His current tour also features medleys of 1970s and ’80s television themes and of “ fast songs you can do with an orchestra,” the latter of which included such silly gems as Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back, Usher’s Yeah, and Kenny Chesney’s She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy. (my emphasis added)

Yes, you read that correctly. Baby Got Back. And one that's not mentioned is "OPP" by Naughy by Nature. If you don't know what OPP stands for, you're on your own to find out. This is a family blog. In any case, it was frightening. Clay is very white. And not very cool in the traditional sense of the word. He pulled off the Kenny Chesney song just fine, but let's just say he should stay away from hip hop and R&B.

I get bonus points for correctly identifying the theme songs to "Perfect Strangers," "Growing Pains," "Full House," "Who's the Boss" and many other songs in the TV medley. Now if I could just figure out a way to free up that wasted brain space so I could use it for more important things.

Overall, I have to say I enjoyed myself. The weather was perfect, there was plenty of great people watching, and the music wasn't half bad.