I’m watching American Idol. Hey, don’t hate- chalk it up to my consuming all things music.

I watched the first season, then bailed when it became this ridiculous phenomenon. I also came to the realization that I would never buy any of the people on the show’s albums, or go to any of their shows.

Blame the writer’s strike for bringing me back after all these years. But what’s kept me watching is the fact that 4 contestants on the show- 1 now is gone- are people who I might actually listen to one day. Yes, I know, I was shocked, too.

Here they are:

Amanda Overmeyer (eliminated)

Carly Smithson

Michael Johns

David Cook

So my favorite is David Cook…a few weeks ago, I realized that I might pay to go see this guy at some point, and that kinda freaked me out.

I had a moment of shock and awe last week when he did Billie Jean. Me and many other Chris Cornell fans didn’t hear Seacrest say before the performance that he would be doing Chris Cornell’s version of Michael Jackson’s song…and I was a little pissed. OK, I was really pissed. He did a great job with it, but it was Cornell that made it. Come to find out, it sold a bunch of itunes downloads for Cornell, which is great.

Cornell’s version:

Cook’s version: