Paul McDonald Post-Idol Media Options

[NatesHeadbander]

Post all Paul post idol media here!!!

This post has been edited by NatesHeadbander: Apr 15th 2011, 6:13 AM

[taylortriumphs]

Exclusive Tour Interview with Paul McDonald
August 15, 2011 | 05:27 pm PT

While touring around the country with the Season 10 American Idol Tour, we caught up with 8th place finalist Paul McDonald to find out about the Nashville show, pranks, and his upcoming wedding.

Paul McDonald talked about the amazing parts of touring. “The best thing about being on tour is probably performing in front of these gigantic crowds,” Paul said. “There are thousands of people every night and it’s cool to get to see and interact with the folks that sent you through this show and who supported you the whole way. It’s the coolest thing getting to hangout with them and just performing. The arenas are unbelievable. You show up and walk down the hallways and see posters of the Foo Fighters, the Eagles, and this last venue it was like Jimmy Page and all these incredible musicians, so it’s cool to get to play at the same venues as these legendary artists.”

Recently, Paul got to play in the town where he auditioned, and the town that he now calls home, Nashville. Regarding his hometown performance, Paul shared, “I will remember that show forever, just because for everyone there, I was kind of their hometown guy. Most of the folks that came through had seen me perform with my band before. It was a whole different scene from then. I used to be playing an hour and a half set of all my original tunes for just a few hundred people. To watch me perform in front of a sold out arena and get up there and dance around and sing some Rod Stewart was pretty entertaining for them. My family got to come and also my grandparents got to come which was really cool. The last time my grandparents saw me perform we were opening up for the band The Presidents of the United States of America and T-Pain, who is a rapper, so they had no clue. They were like, ‘I don’t know about this music thing.’ But they thought it was really cool to see me on a big stage like that this time. I never wrapped my head around American Idol until I got into it and I was like, ‘This is so weird to me that I’ve been touring for five years and busting it and I’ve got albums out and we’ve done a handful of really cool things, and then I get on TV and sing a minute and a half of some cover song and people are screaming and cheering.’ I’m like, ‘What’s going on here?’ I should’ve done this earlier, you know?”

In actuality, Paul being on Idol when he was worked out perfectly, as his band, The Grand Magnolias, got so much recognition that they’ve landed on the Billboard charts. “It’s been great; I can’t complain about anything. It’s been a learning experience just getting to meet some really cool folks, and the connections through the Producers would take years and years to build your name up. I can’t complain about anything, but people will come up to me and be like, ‘Hey, that’s the Rod Stewart guy!’ But it is what it is and it’s helped me out and given me a platform to release a nice little record and get some folks behind it.”

Paul popped the question to Hollywood actress/writer Nikki Reed before he went on tour. How’s the wedding planning coming along? “It’s going good, man. We’re very excited. That’s what I’m really excited about. That’s been the worst part about the tour—the fact that my fiancé can’t come on the bus and there all kinds of rules and I don’t get to see her too much. She has to take taxis from the airport and all kinds of stuff like that. That’s the roughest part, but the wedding planning is going amazing. We’re gonna do some really cool stuff. I can’t really give too many details because we’re trying to keep it very low profile, but I’m really excited about it.”

Of the cities the tour has traveled to so far, which has been Paul’s favorite? “I don’t know. We’ve just been going so hard it feels like they’re all kind of blending into one,” Paul explained. “Orlando was really cool for me just because that was by far the biggest venue that I’ve ever played at or ever sang at. You look out and it was just filled to the top. Even though I don’t think it was the venue with the most ticket sales, but for some reason it looked way huger than all the other ones. Walking out to a sea of people like that was really cool. Nashville was great since it was my hometown spot. It was cool looking out at the crowd. I’m used to going out and rocking my one little song and seeing a handful of Paul posters but most of them are like ‘Hurry up and get off the stage. We want Scotty McCreery.’ Alright, I’m just kidding, but Nashville was really cool because I got to go out and I saw a handful of my friends and family and there were a whole lot of people who brought posters and stuff to support me.”

There are plenty of pranksters in this bunch, and Paul initiated the tour prank on the first day. “I’ll tell you the best prank so far. We weren’t going to release the video online because I think it’s rated NC-17. The first date on the tour we were in Salt Lake City and I used to always have pranks with my band. We haven’t had too much time for pranks just because we’re all so exhausted once we get off the bus. But the first day in Salt Lake City, Jacob was in the locker room showering. We loaded up a bucket of ice to go ice him. We went in there and iced him and we got it all on video. It was pretty good, and that was day one. We actually haven’t done any pranks after that. I told Jacob, because we’re roommates, that I’m the only one who would pull a prank on him. I was like, ‘Jacob, I love you man,’ and I told him he’s allowed to prank me back. The guys are pretty cool; we’re pretty close-knit. Once we get done with the show we all hangout and watch a movie in the back, or me and James will talk to our ladies back home. But the other night we got on the bus and we did some songwriting. We were in the back lounge and we all went around and each of us did a verse and we had about 30 minutes of songwriting."

To all of Paul’s fans he would like to say, “Thanks for your continuous support. Thanks for all the folks who have reached out and bought my original material, my albums, because that’s where my heart is still at—doing that original stuff. Just thanks for all the people who come out to the show. It’s cool getting to meet you and shake everybody’s hands that have been supportive, not just of me but of all the kids on the show. It’s amazing to see all these fans out and about. It’s crazy to me that we’ll hop off the tour bus and there’s a sea of people out in the barricades screaming our names. It still blows my mind. I’m like, ‘I just sing. I just sing a cover of Rod Stewart; I’m not that cool.’ But it’s amazing just getting to hangout with them and seeing everybody. Thanks for everything. Thanks for buying tickets. Thanks for buying the records. Thanks for just supporting us and allowing us to do what we love to do.”

http://www.americanidol.com/news/view/pid/5458/