Mac Potts won’t be the next American Idol, but Clark County sure does idolize him.
Vancouver pianist and singer Potts was eliminated from the ABC-TV talent competition without ever appearing on the small screen. That has led to a big blowback on social media from Potts fans who faithfully kept watching and waiting, only to be supremely let down.
“As disappointing as it is that they did not feature your amazing talent, we know that this outcome does not define your talent or success!” is a typical reaction.
“You’ve always been an idol to me,” another fan posted.
“I’m very disappointed that your talent wasn’t aired, but know this was a learning experience that will just make you stronger,” said yet another — one of hundreds who posted Tuesday morning on the “Mac Potts Music” Facebook page.
Potts confessed that he found Hollywood Week on “American Idol” exciting, but pretty frustrating too. He was repeatedly assured that he would appear on TV, at least briefly, and it was only a matter of when. But “when” turned out to be “never,” as fans discovered this week.
That’s more disappointing than not winning, Potts told The Columbian. Now he doesn’t even have a video record of his visit or performances, he said. “I really wanted something to look back on,” he said.
“Thank you all so much for continuing to hang in there and watch for a few shots of me … right?” Potts posted to his fans. “I wished there had been at least one substantial video/audio clip of me that was featured so I could relive the memory, but regardless, I’m grateful.”
Roller coaster with cameras
Last week Potts told The Columbian about his audition experience — which required his wife, Hailey, to drive the blind musician and their infant daughter, Aria, to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho — but he was forbidden from talking about going to Hollywood. Now, the gag order is moot.
Potts said he traveled in mid-December to Hollywood with his wife, baby and sister — for extra baby-sitting and getting-around guidance. They arrived in Hollywood and got one decent night’s sleep in a hotel, he said — and then the roller-coaster ride began.
“You keep going and keep going. You just keep riding the ride and there’s nothing to slow it,” he said. “Your first call is at 6:30 a.m. and you’re there in that building until 9 p.m.”
First, contestants are lined up in rows of 10 “and they just have them sing off,” Potts said. “One at a time you step forward, you sing, you can accompany yourself if that’s what you do, you talk to the judges, you go backstage and wait” for the judges to make some quick eliminations. “Then they call the whole line up and say, will the following people step forward. That’s the end of the road for some.”
Potts made the cut. “I did my thing, I did it well, I walked off like a boss,” he said. “It was stressful but in my heart I felt like I had it.”
Another thing that goes on at “American Idol” is a lot of backstage socializing and even impromptu jamming — in front of constant cameras, Potts said. “They are always trying to capture people making friends with people, whether they use it or not.”
Potts had a harder time than most because he’s blind, he said, but eventually he borrowed somebody’s keyboard and got a bunch of his fellow contestants singing along with Stevie Wonder and gospel classics. “Everyone could see what I was all about. It took a while, but I made a lot of cool friends,” he said.
Next came the group round, requiring contestants to sort themselves into harmony groups and arrange, at lighting speed, a performance of one song that lets each member step forward and take a turn as the lead singer.
“It’s crazy that you’re working to learn and perform a song with people you’ve never known in your life,” Potts said. Personality and power dynamics can and do get prickly, he said. More stress comes from the fact that this is an overnight project. “You have until the next morning. Some people don’t even sleep. Then, the call time is 5:30 a.m. because they just want to mess with you.”
Stressing the contestants is part of the “American Idol” challenge, he said. “I survived that, but it was nuts,” he said.
A spell on Lionel
Potts was back in his element for the solo round. He didn’t feel especially stressed while the “American Idol” house band backed him on the blues classic “I Put a Spell On You.”
“In my humble opinion it was great,” he said. “I got a standing ovation from the judges. They don’t do that very often.”
After that, Potts said, he and other contestants waited in a holding room until the judges walked in. “Lionel Richie did the talking. He said, `You are all really talented, you got this far from the thousands who tried, and that’s the good news.’ I knew right then there was bad news,” Potts said.
But Richie pulled Potts aside for a private chat. “He took more time for me than any of the judges,” Potts said.
What was his advice? Basically that Potts should relax a little, and have faith in himself and his talent.
“He told me, ‘Mac, you’re a storyteller. People like you. You don’t need to try to put every single thing into your small performance. When you’re talking behind the piano, just introduce yourself and do what you do. You’re that good.'”
Richie’s confidence in him made the trip home a little less disappointing, Potts said. “I never thought I was trying too hard, but I’m able to take that. Maybe I can make what I do that much better.”
