AMERICAN IDOL star Clay Aiken made his daytime debut on DAYS OF OUR LIVES this Christmas season when he gave the newly-reunited Steve and Kayla a private concert. Aiken sang “Everything I Have” and the classic Christmas carol, “O Holy Night.” After taping, Aiken sat down for a chat about the experience, the chances of a return engagement, and how appearing on the show made his longtime best friend Kristy’s day.
Soap Opera Weekly: Are you a fan of DAYS OF OUR LIVES?
Clay Aiken: I’d never seen it, not that I’m not a fan. I’ve never been on another soap opera. (He laughs.) But my best friend, Kristy, is a huge fan. She’s a DAYS OF OUR LIVES nut. She’s a Daysmate. She watches it every night. She TiVos it and watches it.
Weekly: She must have been excited when you told her you were going to appear on the show.
Aiken: I had to be very careful about how I broke the news to her. I knew that she was going to flip out, and, lo and behold, she did flip out. She’s watched DAYS since she was three. She knows every character. And, today, I decided that I would bring her with me. She has literally been sitting in the dressing room, giddy as a 13-year-old. She’s always very composed and professional. Today, she’ll meet someone and say, “Hi. Nice to meet you,” very calmly. Then, as soon as they walk out of the room, “Ohhh, my Goooodddddd!”
Weekly: How did you end up on DAYS, as opposed to another soap?
Aiken: We actually had a few shows that we talked to, but DAYS has such story history. It’s really popular. We didn’t even talk to Kristy about it. Had I talked to Kristy I would have had no choice. They’ve got a really storied history. I actually spoke to Michael Bublé, a friend of mine who sang on DAYS a few years ago. Since then he’s gone on to be this huge star the world over, but he says that, to this day, people still come up to him more than anything else and say, “You sang on DAYS OF OUR LIVES.” I think it’s just something that resonates with people.
Weekly: So how did your soap opera debut go?
Aiken: You know what’s interesting? When I did AMERICAN IDOL, we were at CBS. We would literally stay locked in our dressing rooms. Not like in a cage or anything, but we were stuck in the dressing rooms for hours every day. Y&R and B&B were [taped] on that lot. We would get the feed of those soap operas, so we would watch them. They would take FOREVER to do one scene. They’d do them over and over. I thought, “It’s going to be a LONG day today. I’ll have to do this scene six times.” I was so impressed at how quickly they worked. We rehearsed the scene once, taped it once; then, we left.
Weekly: Which gets your adrenaline going more, doing AMERICAN IDOL or appearing on DAYS?
Aiken: I would have to say your adrenaline gets pumping on IDOL. A, you have the judges. B, you have the pressure of it being live. C, the most important thing, you have the audience right there. The benefit to doing something like this is that it’s taped. So if I did mess up, we could have done a second take, a third take….
Weekly: Did anyone on the DAYS cast hit you up for autographs?
Aiken: I signed a bunch and took photos [with Deidre Hall (Marlena) and Alison Sweeney (Sami)]. Kristy took photos with almost everybody, including the custodial staff. Just for the fun of it. Just because she’s here.
Weekly: It sounds like this was a positive experience. Would you consider coming back to DAYS?
Aiken: I’d love to. They talked about having Patch and Kayla’s theme song be “Everything I Have.” We’d love to come back and do that again. If Kayla is a Claymate, we’d do a concert for her.
