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A voice in the crowd

As the 'American Idol' top 10 comes to Rupp Arena, Carly Smithson discusses the highs, lows and in-betweens

By Jenna Youngs Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Carly Smithson is not a Wall Street Journal fan.

Ask the American Idol Season 7 finalist what she thinks of the story the newspaper published in 2002 that was the source of rumors about her during the show last spring, and she'll tell you it's ”complete rubbish.“

If you paid attention to ­American Idol last season, you probably heard the tale: Smithson released an album with the record label MCA in 2001 under her maiden name, Carly ­Hennessy. The Wall Street ­Journal story said the company spent more than $2 million ­producing the ­album, which sold only a few hundred ­copies nationwide.

Smithson, who is coming to Lexington this weekend as part of the American Idols Live! tour, said from a stop in Connecticut that the $2 million figure is untrue and that the album wasn't publicized when it was released. What irks her most, though, is that she was singled out as being the only Idol contestant to have worked on a record. In fact, a number of the top 10 ­finalists recorded and released albums before appearing on the Fox talent contest, including winner David Cook.

”It bothers me,“ she said. ”I made a record and it didn't get widely released. No big deal.“

Smithson, who came in sixth during the run of the show, has put the story behind her and is relishing her remaining weeks on the 49-city Idol tour, which ends Sept. 13 in Tulsa, Okla.

”We're having an absolute blast,“ she said. ”It's weird; our voices are getting stronger. I thought we'd be completely exhausted. The audience is amazing; we feed off their energy. We're selling out; it's a complete dream come true. It'll probably be many years before any of us play to crowds like this again.“

Smithson performs three songs at each stop: Evanescence's Bring Me to Life, Heart's Crazy on You and Cyndi Lauper's I Drove All Night. The songs ”mesh together“ to show Smithson's portrait of herself as an artist, she said.

During the course of the ­television show, many of Smithson's song selections were left to chance. Contestants were given a list of songs to pick from, and if more than one selected a song, they would pull from a hat to decide who got to sing it.

”I was terribly unlucky,“ she said. ”I always got stuck with whatever was left.“

Her unlucky streak has ­continued a bit during the tour, but ­Smithson takes even that in stride. At one show, she caught her heel in an ­elevator during her entrance, and during a show near Chicago, ­Smithson injured her hip after visiting a backstage ­chiropractor ­between her set and the all-­contestant finale.

”I was in a wheelchair the next morning,“ she said. ”Some of the boys offered to put my dress on and perform for me.“

She recovered quickly and ­performed without the assistance of the male Idols the following night.

After the tour ends, Smithson plans to dive into work on her next album. But she won't soon forget her Idol experience.

”It was amazing,“ she said. ”It was the hardest, most frightening, irritating, great experience of my life.“