Clay Aiken On The Tonight Show

‘American Idol’ runner-up Clay Aiken performed ‘Invisible’ on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Monday night (October 13). Afterwards, the singer spoke with Jay before a screaming crowd that had slept outside the NBC Studios overnight to see Clay. Read on for a transcript.

Jay: Hey, Clay. Nice job, buddy. Have a seat.

[ Cheers and applause ] A lot of fans here.

Clay: I know. Nice. Hello, everybody.

Jay: Lot of people spent the night out. I pull in, there were people sleeping out front.

Clay: You don’t sleep here?

Jay: I don’t sleep here. I go home at night. You have a special fan in the audience. You wanted to say something?

Clay: I do. There’s a young girl here tonight named sherry. Where is Sherry?

[ Cheers ] Where is Sherry?

Clay: They put her in the back.

Clay: Oh, no. Where is she? I can’t see Sherry. Sherry came all the
way from across the country — her birthday — for her birthday to come see the show. The other day, we were doing the video for “Invisible,” that song, and she was touring — we didn’t even know she was going to be here. She was kind of touring Hollywood, was in the bus on Hollywood Boulevard, and happened to see we were doing the video. Jumped out of the bus in the middle of traffic —

[ Cheers ] And stayed all day.

[ Applause ] Happy birthday.

Jay: And then, what happened? She jumped out of the bus, and what happened?

Clay: She jumped out of the bus, and she left her stuff on the bus, so it’s somewhere in L.A.

[ Laughter ] Did you get it back? Okay.

Jay: There’s a happy ending to this story. Well, there you go. And you still talk to Ruben?

Clay: I do. And actually, another video story. We were doing the video, and Ruben — all of a sudden we hear this noise, someone screaming on the street, “we love Clay.” And we look, and it’s Ruben sticking his head out of the car driving down the road.

[ Laughter ]

Jay: You know, I would stay off Hollywood Boulevard. You’re not going to get any work done. We have our bird caller, but do you have a talent besides, obviously, singing? Do you have some special talent that you want to share, like, she does bird calls?

[ Laughter ]

Clay: I just sang.

Jay: That’s good.

[ Cheers ] That’s very good. I mean, something more than that? Do you have some other physical thing you want to do?

Clay: Do I want to do it? I don’t know.

[ Cheers ]

Jay: Well, now, you’re trapped. What is it you do?

[ Applause ]

Clay: I’m afraid of what you’re going to say when I do this.

Clay: Go ahead, man. You cool. You cool.

[ Laughter ]

[ Cheers ] Not so good with these shoes.

Jay: I see why you were reluctant now to do that, yeah. Now —

Clay: Speechless.

Clay: I’m impressed.

[ Laughter ] That’s good if you want to kick yourself in the ass.

[ Laughter ]

Jay: Now, I read something about you. You have a fear of cats? Why? What is it about — are you allergic? Is there some –?

Clay: Oh, I think I’m —

Jay: Just suspicious?

Clay: No. I accidentally, accidentally, PETA — I accidentally ran over my kitten when I was 16 years old.

[ Audience aws ] And I swear I think the cat’s spirit has haunted me in some way. And so, I just can’t — you can bring a lion or a tiger — I can handle Roy’s tiger probably.

Jay: You know, I don’t think so, no.

[ Laughter ] I don’t think so.

Clay: Maybe not.

Jay: I would stick to the kitten. And this is pretty cool. I got my “Rolling Stone” this summer, and there you are on the cover.

[ Cheers ]

Clay: Kind of a surprise to me, too.

Jay: Now, why was that a surprise?

Clay: They had me unbutton the top two buttons, which was —

[ Cheers ] Which was okay, and then they said, “unbutton the bottom
button,” and I was like, “why?” And they said, “just do it. Just do it.”

[ Cheers ] And then they turn a fan on me, and it just blows the shirt out of the way.

Jay: Well, there you go. Well, congratulations on all your success. “Measure of a Man” is the CD.

[ Cheers and applause ] Clay, thank you very much.