David Roland Cook (born December 20, 1982) is an American rock singer and songwriter. On May 21, 2008, he won the seventh season of the reality television show American Idol.
Early life
Cook was born in Houston, Texas, and raised in Blue Springs, Missouri. His parents are Beth (née Frye) and Stan Cook.[2] Cook's younger brother, Andrew, is an elementary education major at the University of Central Missouri,[3] and his older brother, Adam, lives in Terre Haute, Indiana, with his wife and children.[4] Cook's parents divorced during his childhood; his mother remarried and now goes by Beth Foraker, and his father relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana.[2]
Cook's interest in music began early in life; he received his first guitar at the age of 12. He began singing in second grade, when his elementary school music teacher gave him a solo in a school choir performance. He proceeded to perform in virtually every Christmas and PTA program.[5] He also participated in choir and drama programs in middle school and high school. At Blue Springs South High School, he performed in musicals, including The Music Man, West Side Story, and Singin' in the Rain.[6][7][5] He had also been an avid baseball player during high school. After losing interest in sports, he focused more on music. He earned a theater scholarship to the University of Central Missouri, but he abandoned theater after two semesters, graduating from the school in 2006 with a degree in graphic design.[8][9] While in college, he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa.[10] After his college graduation, he relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to pursue a career in music, telling his family, "I just want to give myself until I'm 26 years old to get a job."[11]
Musical background
Cook was the lead singer and guitarist of the band Axium from 1999 until 2006. He formed Axium in his junior year of high school with drummer Bobby Kerr. One of the band's songs, "Hold," was picked up by AMC Theatres Movie Tunes and was played before previews on over 20,000 screens nationwide.[12][13] Axium was also named one of the top 15 independent bands in the country in the "Got Milk?" independent band contest, and it was chosen as the best band in Kansas City in 2004.[14][15]
In 2006, after the breakup of Axium, Cook relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and joined the regional touring band Midwest Kings, playing guitar, bass, and singing backup vocals. He recorded one EP, Incoherent with Desire to Move On, with the band in 2006. He also worked as a bartender at several Tulsa clubs, including Blank Slate and Rehab Lounge.[9][16]
Cook released a solo independent album, Analog Heart, in 2006, the year he graduated from college.[17] It was written from 2004 to 2006, and he designed the artwork as well.[14][18] The album was chosen as the fourth-best CD released in 2006 by website Music Equals Life.[19] Cook also won the Urban Tulsa Weekly's "Absolute Best of Tulsa" award for "Best Locally Produced, Independent Album" in 2007. He had completed recording his sophomore album before his appearance on American Idol.[20] Over the weekend of April 18 to April 20, 2008, Analog Heart was listed as the number one album for "Today's Top MP3 Albums" on Amazon.com. Soon there after, the album was removed from Amazon.[21][22] His musical influences include Our Lady Peace, Alice in Chains, Big Wreck and Pearl Jam.
Post-Idol career
For the Billboard chart week of June 7, 2008, a week following Cook's American Idol victory, Cook broke several Billboard chart records. Most notable was his record shattering feat of having eleven songs debut on the Hot 100 that week, beating the previous record set by Miley Cyrus in 2006 when she had six songs debut on the chart.[37] Cook's first single, "The Time of My Life" led the pack, debuting at #3 on the Hot 100.[37] Cook's eleven charting songs also gave him the most songs by one artist on the Hot 100 of any week in the Nielsen SoundScan era (which began in 1991), and the most of any era since The Beatles placed 14 songs on the chart the week of April 11, 1964.[37] In addition, that same week Cook also broke the record for the most debuts on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart, where he placed 14 debut entries, the record of which was previously six set by Bon Jovi in 2007.[37] Cook's 17 entries had a combined total of 944,000 digital downloads in the first week of selling.[38]
Cook is currently due to work with Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic and Jesse McCartney on his upcoming album.[39] The album is slated to release in the fall of 2008.[40]
