24-year-old Josh King, a singer and musician from Matthews, NC. Eric McCandless Disney
Only a couple of episodes are left until someone takes the coveted title as the next “American Idol,” but that whirlwind journey is over for Charlotte’s Josh King.
This season began with nearly 150 aspiring artists who got a ticket to Hollywood after auditions. Week after week, the local singer and musician continued to rise above the rest of the competition — making it all the way to Top 8.
But in an unfortunate twist of irony, his last performance to one of his favorite songs, “Home” by Michael Bublé, brought him back home in the “Judge’s Song Contest” in the last episode, which had fans praising him as a “class act” for urging judges to save contestant Mattie Pruitt before he was eliminated.
Josh King and Ryan Seacrest in the April 5 episode of “American Idol” on ABC. Eric McCandless Disney
At the beginning of the competition, CharlotteFive chatted with Josh King about his musical background that got him on the show. Now, we’re continuing the conversation about his overall experience and what’s next for his music career.
(Note: This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
C5: In our previous interview, you talked about your musical background, why you decided to go on “American Idol” and said you were in for one of the most interesting and stressful rides of your life. Now that it’s concluded, how would you describe the experience overall?
Josh: “I think I described it in another interview as challenging, chaotic yet fun.”
C5: A few times you seem surprised to make it to the next round. What was going through your mind at the end when you were in the bottom two?
Josh: “There were like a couple things running through my head. Like, ‘OK you know there’s a chance they could save me again, but you know I doubt they would.’ At that point, I was kind of a bit sick of Hollywood, and I’m like, ‘You know what? I think Mattie could really benefit from being on the show longer than I could.’
Because, up to that point, there was like a list of accomplishments I wanted to kinda get on the show – like experience and things I want to do on the show, and I pretty much got all of that done pretty early on. I got to sing the songs I wanted to sing, I got to meet the people I wanted to meet, I got to get the experience I wanted. I got the challenges I wanted to complete.” …
“I was able to meet my goals, and I felt that Mattie [Pruitt] has a lot of room to grow and that she could benefit more from just continuing on, whereas I was OK with going home at that point.”
C5: Which was your favorite performance and why?
Josh: “It depends on what type of performance style because I don’t really pick favorites. ‘All by Myself’ was like the first time I really got to open up, so in a way that was my favorite. … I was able to really internalize this song well. … It wasn’t my best vocal performance. I wouldn’t say that. But was it the performance where I was just truly in the moment, feeling the song? Yes.”
C5: Are there any performances you wish you could do over?
Josh: “‘Until I Found You’ from Hollywood Week. I wish I had three days to learn the song.”
Josh King and MKY in the April 7 episode of “American Idol” on ABC. Eric McCandless Disney
C5: How would you say being on “American Idol” changed your life?
Josh: “I don’t know how to describe it, because it’s such a significant change, honestly. … It put me into a position where I could rapidly grow, rapidly learn, just push myself to my limits in a very short amount of time. On top of that, it’s also giving me the opportunity to meet everyone I did — contestants and crew, alike.” …
“As it thins out and it gets narrowed down, you either really have to kind of lock-in on it and that’s all you think about or you know, it just gets harder. It’s not because the workload gets hard. … It’s just that it gets quiet and lonely very fast. … It just gets very quiet and I’m a very social person and I get my energy from other people around me and just having fun with them and so it definitely got a bit harder for me as the weeks progressed because of that.
“It definitely changed my life because it’s given me the opportunity just to be a part of it, and that’s my biggest takeaway from it is that I got to be a part of this.”
Contestants during the April 21 episode of “American Idol” on ABC. Christopher Willard Disney
C5: How did you form such strong relationships with your fellow contestants? Is there anyone you’re especially close with?
Josh: “I guess we’re trauma bonded you could say … especially when it gets down to Top 24. The Top 24 is together for just so long. Like we’re together for like two months, three months straight. Then in a way, we’re practically living together, and so it really becomes like just one big family.
“We drive each other crazy at times but at the same time, we just really love each other. It was hard for me because my boys — Baylee [Littrell], Desmond [Roberts], Olivier [Bergeron] — went home, but I’ll get to see him again. Penny [Samar] and Grayson [Torrence] we had this, basically, a trio going on. Everything we did was just comedic as all get out.”
C5: How does the ‘Idol’ stage compare to singing in public to strangers in an airport, something you mentioned you’ve done several times as a volunteer pianist at Charlotte Douglas before going on the show?
Josh: “One — you’re playing for people that are not really there to see music. They’re just passing through … You’re just background noise. They’re not there to see you. You are, as I like to say, just a background character. … Whereas you’re on ‘American Idol,’ suddenly people are there to watch what you do. They want to see what you pull out next and they watch your journey from the very beginning to see how the judges and the show challenge you and how you will rise to those challenges. …
“Rehearsing on stage without a crowd is way different than actually performing on the stage with a crowd. The crowd completely changes everything and it changes the energy … It really changes it, and it changes it in a good way, and so none of my rehearsals were ever like the way I performed my songs.”
Josh King during the April 14 epiosde of “American Idol” on ABC. Eric McCandless Disney
C5: What’s next for you? Has this experience changed your plans for what you might do with music?
Josh: “Well, I’ll figure it out. I definitely wanna start writing more songs. I wanna do more collaborations, and I’m gonna see about meeting up with some people that I met during Hollywood Week that are local to me. I might see about maybe doing a duet with Grayson because we could kill like one of those duet songs.
“I definitely want to record. I’ve thought about a bunch of things, like maybe I can get on a tour for another musician or artist. Like maybe if I ever get to, I’d love to open for a bigger act. There are a lot of things I could do. It’s one of those things where we’ll have to see where this kind of takes me.”
C5: At the beginning of the season, you were saying how shocked you were to even make it past your audition. So how does it feel to look back making it to the top 8? Did you think that you would make it as far as you did?
Josh: “Absolutely not. When they announced that I was eliminated, it hits you. This whole wave just hits you and you realize, ‘How did I make it this far?’ I’m very grateful to everybody that gave me this chance and that got me this far, but I’m like, it’s really crazy that I did because I never thought I would ever just make it. …
“Every single round like I was like, ‘Now I’m gonna go home. That wasn’t my greatest performance. Everybody else has stronger performances. Now I’m going home.’ And then suddenly, they said, ‘Oh Josh King’ and I’m like, ‘What?’ …
“I still haven’t been able to really wrap my head around it, but at the end of the day, I’m thankful to everyone who voted for me and gave me that chance to just be there in the moment and live it … What made this so great to me was for time, I got to perform in front of thousands and millions of people and I got to just have fun. If I’m having fun, so is the audience.
“For a moment, I finally got to do what I love again and I love performing. I used to do festivals and stuff with my mentor as a kid and it felt very much like that. I know coming out of this, this is what I wanna do with my life. This is where I belong and I hope that this experience it’s just one step closer to achieving that goal of doing what I love.”
Josh King from Charlotte, NC on the March 16 episode of “American Idol.” Eric McCandless Disney
