AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Here's a holiday question for you. What does Christmas sound like? Singer Clay Aiken has thoughts.
CLAY AIKEN: Christmas music sounds warm and inviting. It should feel familiar. It should make you want to sit by the fire with a sweater and a mug of hot cocoa, you know?
RASCOE: He has a new Christmas album that's a call back to what he says was a golden era.
AIKEN: I always just feel more at home in the music and the sounds of the '60s and the '70s, and there's so much great Christmas music that was made in those times. That's what this album especially is about.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MERRY CHRISTMAS, DARLING ")
AIKEN: (Singing) Merry Christmas, darling. We're apart, that's true. But I can dream, and in my dreams, I'm Christmasing with you.
RASCOE: Clay Aiken's new album is called "Christmas Bells Are Ringing."
AIKEN: Christmas music is just cheesy, and I am, as well.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
AIKEN: Christmas music usually evokes happy memories, and people are listening to it when they're in a good mood. So it's a nice place to sit.
RASCOE: If we go back in time - and obviously, you know, most - I think most people listening will know that your music career took off after you placed second on the singing competition that everyone used to watch...
(LAUGHTER)
AIKEN: The singing competition that everybody knows, yes (laughter).
RASCOE: ..."American Idol," back in 2003.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "AMERICAN IDOL")
AIKEN: (Singing) Why do you build me up, build me up, buttercup, baby, just to let me down? Let me down. Mess me around and then worst of all, worst of all...
RASCOE: How have you changed as an artist since then?
AIKEN: (Laughter) Oh, goodness. Well, I have changed so much that I stopped being an artist for about ten years. You know, in 2012, '13, I took a hiatus, it turned out to be. I don't know that I initially knew after "Idol" who I was musically. When we were on "Idol," so much of it was cover songs. We had a Bee Gees week, a Billy Joel week. We sang others' music. So I came off the show and didn't necessarily have my own musical sound, and I didn't fit into the pop music world. And now I feel more comfortable with myself and know what I like to sing and what I don't like to sing, and I'm not trying to create an album that's going to be on the radio. So I certainly have gotten more confidence in who I am artistically now.
RASCOE: And I mean, you mentioned stepping away from music and, you know - and a lot happening in your personal life. You came out as gay publicly, and I read that there were some difficult things going on in your life. Is that something that you can talk about, how you came through some of those difficulties?
AIKEN: I think I probably went through the same thing that every LGBT person goes through at some point in their life, that period of realizing it yourself that you are gay or lesbian or trans or bi or whatever. I mean, I didn't even know for sure, had not admitted to myself that I was gay until I was on "Idol" in '03. And so between '03 and '08, I was having that whole process. And I think, you know, the whole speculation of is Clay gay was the No. 1 story on "Entertainment Tonight" at some point.
It was certainly complicated for me to hear, in those years, comedians talking about me being gay when I had not completely embraced it myself. And, you know, when I came out in '08 publicly, I did because I had had a child and didn't want to raise him to have to lie himself. So when I did that, I lost probably half of the people who were fans and followed me. I mean, there was a precipitous drop almost immediately when I came out, which I look back on in hindsight and find funny because everybody should've known.
(LAUGHTER)
AIKEN: I didn't necessarily, but I always joked to people that I came out to America before I did to myself because they knew when I walked on stage.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
AIKEN: But I kind of look back at it and think, wow, it's great that we have come as far as a country in the past 15 years as we have, because, you know, I certainly don't believe that would happen now. You know, I know lots of LGBT artists who come out and have their following go up now in 2024.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLAY AIKEN SONG, "ALL YEAR LONG")
RASCOE: You've spoken about how important faith and, you know, the Southern tradition are to you. Are there places on this Christmas album where some of those things come across? Is there a song in particular that makes you think about that?
AIKEN: To me, the most spiritual song is called "All Year Long." And it sort of reminds folks that in December, we are typically a little bit more peaceful and friendly to our neighbors. We have that holiday spirit with us. And then I don't know that it makes it all the way to the end of the first week of January for all of us...
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yeah.
AIKEN: ...But we tend to forget that. And so that song for me is really about trying to remember the peace that we imbue into everything around the holidays and trying to carry that with us throughout the entire year.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALL YEAR LONG")
AIKEN: (Singing) May every carol, each candle bright.
RASCOE: I completely, you know, understand that. And my - you know, my grandmother, my big ma, used to keep up her Christmas towels all year long. And we would ask her why, and she said, because she celebrates Jesus every day.
AIKEN: (Laughter) There you go. Why can't we remember to treat others with that same sort of kindness and generosity at other times of the year? Do we need sleigh bells to play at all times? Do we need to add a little glockenspiel to all of our lives (laughter) in April, too?
RASCOE: Is there a family Christmas activity or tradition that you're really looking forward to this year?
AIKEN: We don't do anything necessarily incredibly unique. My mom, when she was my age - her family - there would always be one family member who got a very big Christmas gift. Only one member would get the big gift every year. And they would know that they got the big gift because they would open their present, and there would be a hog's tail. You know North Carolina. We've more hogs than people here. So they...
RASCOE: (Laughter).
AIKEN: ...Raised hogs, and they would kill a hog to eat for the Christmas dinner. But they would cut the tail off the hog, and they'd wrap it up, and that person who got the big gift would find out they were getting something special because they'd open it up and have the hog's tail. That...
RASCOE: Oh, wow.
AIKEN: ...Is a fun family tradition.
RASCOE: That is. That is.
AIKEN: (Laughter) It's a fun family tradition, but we don't do that anymore. So I used...
RASCOE: (Laughter).
AIKEN: ...I stole my mom's to share with you.
(SOUNDBITE OF "THE CHRISTMAS SONG (MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU)")
AIKEN: (Singing) There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and caroling out in the snow, out in the snow. There'll be scary ghost stories...
RASCOE: That's musician Clay Aiken. He has a new album out called "Christmas Bells Are Ringing." Thank you so much for joining us.
AIKEN: Thank you very much, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF "THE CHRISTMAS SONG (MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU)")
AIKEN: (Singing) Long ago. Wonderful time, wonderful, wonderful. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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