Kris Allen - Interview with EW.com

You know what's great about the Internets? They are infinite! See, I wrote this article on Kris Allen for the current issue of Entertainment Weekly and had the pleasure of spending a good chunk of Memorial Day with him in New York City. We roamed around Central Park, where he got a kick out of visiting the John Lennon "Imagine" memorial; we hit Rockefeller Center, where a woman not only asked for a photo but requested that he take off his shades in said photo (he obliged); and we rode the subway (F train, direction downtown, in case you care) because he'd never been on one before. (Twas also his first ever trip to the Big Apple.) Problem is, there's only so much I could fit into two pages of the magazine. So I hereby offer you some of the morsels that did not make it into the magazine story. (It's the first of a new PopWatch series we're calling "Bonus Points.") Behold, your Idol sounding off everything from calling Danny Gokey a "jerk" to Christians rejecting Adam Lambert. Enjoy!

On the Idols having to lip-synch for many of the early group performances.

That whole lip-synch thing, we were so upset about it. They were like, "It's hard to blend the 10 voices" or whatever. After a while, we complained enough and Adam's pretty good at taking a stand. We'd be like, "Yeah, Adam! Go, Adam!" He would always lead the pack. He was the first one to be bold and say something [to the producers].

On his (let's admit it, pretty darn adorable) habit of jutting his jaw to the side when hittin' the big notes.

My friends and my wife make fun of me for it all the time. That's [one of] the reasons I can't watch my performances, 'cause I see that and I'm like, "Oh gosh. Don't do that." I don't even know why, it's just a thing. I hate it. But…I've always done it. I've done it forever. I've tried to change it. It just won't happen. It's just emotion—my mouth happens to go to the side. I thought it was so funny when we did the results show and Anoop made fun of me. That was hilarious. They were like, "Is that okay?" And I was like, "Totally! I don't care. It's funny!"

On speculation that he and Adam Lambert painted their nails as a campaign to get a Kradam finale. (i.e. at the exclusion of Danny Gokey)

That's not what we were saying. This is what we were saying: There was this tabloid thing that came out about me and Adam, about how we don't get along because I'm this conservative kid from Arkansas and he's this L.A. liberal guy. Which, I could be nothing less than conservative. I'm just from Arkansas. And they were like, "He's cranky because he misses his wife and Adam's nail polish is all over the place and they can't get along." And we were like, "That's so stupid. That's the stupidest thing." We just didn't want people to think that we didn't get along. Because we're really great, great friends.

On calling Gokey a "jerk" on Larry King Live last Friday, in response to Gokey saying he had picked Allen to win.

That was a joke. Seriously, we're all really good friends and we joke around with each other so much. It just came out. He's like my brother as well. We've become so close. We're around each other so much, we just joke around a lot. I hope people didn't read it differently. I'm sure the Danny haters will. [Slips into a mean, angry voice] "Kris hates Danny!" It's so weird that everyone hangs on to every word you say. But I'm not gonna change. I'm not gonna not joke around with Danny Gokey.

On the PR department schooling the Idols on what they can and can't say on the air. After Allison Iraheta joked about not cutting herself…

Oh gosh. All the PR people were like, "Oh gosh. Oh, Allison don't say that on TV!" There's a couple things that we don't say. She doesn't say "cut myself." I said "retard" one time. When I was talking about myself, I said, "I felt like a retard." Never say that again! And then, I don't say "benches" because it sounds like "bitches." [Allen's slight twang does transform the word into something like "binches," which is dangerously close to "bitches"] I don't say that anymore… until now! I'm sittin' on these binches! [Laughs]

On his frustration with Christians who wouldn't accept Adam Lambert.

There [were all these rumors] about how all the conservative, Christian people that would vote for me hate Adam and never want him to win because of who he is. Oh, it was so frustrating—really bad, because we are really good friends. Why can't everyone get along? It never made any sense for me to judge anyone, who they are. It frustrates me that people can't get along with people because of their differences. And I'll tell you what, especially Christians. Christians have a hard time accepting people like Adam—liberal, from L.A., looks different, maybe acts a certain way. He's a great, great guy. They don't even give him a chance. And it's frustrating because I come from that. A lot of my friends are not that way, which I appreciate, but a lot of people in Arkansas or in the South or wherever are that way. We really hope that our relationship can be an inspiration to people. I could go on about that forever.