Crystal Bowersox: The Reality Rocks
Many past "American Idol" contestants have milked personal sob stories to increase their likability factor, but during Season 9, runner-up Crystal Bowersox only needed to rely on her immense talent to get all the way to the finale. She kept much of her personal life tightly under wraps during the show, but still, viewers couldn't help but detect a depth of pain and hard-won life experience behind her quiet, steely exterior.When I recently got the chance to interview Crystal over at Sony Music headquarters in Los Angeles, talk about her goal to not make a typical "cheesy" Idol album and the possibility of her crossing over to the country market soon led (around the 4:30 mark in the video below) to a heartfelt discussion about her album's "here I am, this is my story, take it or leave it" statement song.
It's definitely autobiographical. I never want to talk about my mother poorly because she did the best she could...She was a single mom of three kids. That is not easy...We were poor and she would get frustrated and she didn't know how to deal with her emotions, and she'd turn to drinking and things would get physical a lot in our house growing up...There was constant chaos, cops on the lawn, physical fights and stuff. A lot of my youth was very dark and ugly. But I don't see 'Farmer's Daughter' as a dark song, because for me it was healing.