David Cook Gets Kinky And Talks ‘Chromance’

Is there anything that David Cook can’t do?

Besides releasing Chromance, a new EP that is generating a great deal of buzz among fans, the multi-talented Season 7 winner of American Idol is gearing up for a starring role in the hit Broadway musical, Kinky Boots. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Cook is set to play Charlie Price, a man who inherits a shoe-making factory from his father. In an exclusive interview, Broadway’s newest leading man opened up about the road he had to travel in order to land the gig of a lifetime.

After winning American Idol in 2008, Cook was offered several big-time acting roles. Unfortunately, his busy recording and touring schedule kept him away from the stage. It was only recently that the star had the opportunity to revisit a passion he developed in his adolescent years: musical theater. Cook participated in musical theater in high school, and would later attend the University of Central Missouri on a theater scholarship.

“I just kind of refocused my efforts on the acting thing in the last couple of years. I was plugging away at auditions,” Cook tells the Inquisitr.

Cook is now boldly following in the footsteps of Stark Sands, the man who originated the role, as well as Panic! at the Disco’s Brendon Urie and Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears. The music megastars made the role of Charlie Price an iconic one to tackle, but Cook isn’t backing down from the challenge. In fact, he is looking forward to working with the rest of the cast to create his own take on Charlie.

“I’m excited to get my hands dirty and try to put my stamp on that role a little bit,” says Cook. “I love the ensemble aspect of it. I get to do that and really bounce off of other people creatively. That’s always exciting.”

The 35-year-old singer-songwriter is also “mentally preparing” to dance in front of a large crowd. As he gets ready to push it to the limit and shake his hips for all the swooning girls in the audience, he is proudly embracing a character very different from who he is off the stage.

“What I love about this role is that it’s not me. It’s this guy from Great Britain, and he’s shy and aloof. I don’t necessarily think I’m those things,” says Cook. “I love kind of getting neck deep in the accent. I love the story. I love the message of the play. To be one of the people to help put that out there, that is a pretty big honor.”

Before Cook rocks the infamous red boots on April 3, as reported by Broadway, longtime fans of Cook have been seeing him take to the road to promote Chromance. They were mesmerized and in awe of his consistently strong performances, night after night. In order to maximize the flow of the shows, Cook says that the fewer guitar changes he had, the better the show, as it allowed him to focus on the music. It was a necessary strategy for Cook, because during his free time, he surrounds himself with seven Gibson Firebird guitars – and Cook believes that if he were given 10 guitars on stage, he would want to play all of them.

When not hanging around his favorite toys, the singer told Inquisitr that his favorite track to perform on the most recent tour was “Warfare.”

“When it really took hold for me is when I was putting together the live arrangement of that song. Its choruses are — I don’t want to say heavy, [but] there’s more depth to it live. Just with the guitars and bass, all hitting that same riff on the chorus. It just hits really, really hard. Especially on stage. I’d say ‘Warfare’ is my favorite to play right now. If you’d ask me again in 10 minutes, I’d probably change my mind,” laughs Cook.

Cook found out that making his own record came with certain obstacles of which he was originally unaware. His previous albums, David Cook and This Loud Morning, were released under RCA Records. For those records, the American Idol winner put his trust into producers and industry veterans that knew how to get certain sounds out there for his fans to enjoy. This Loud Morning did incredibly well on the Billboard Top 200, debuting at No. 7. Despite the album’s popularity, the singer wanted to have creative control of his work going forward. Cook left the label in 2012 to do things his own way, and has embraced the process of learning as he goes. It’s a method that has proven to be successful so far for the versatile artist.

“It’s like someone jumping out of a plane without a parachute, hoping there is a net somewhere. I think now, once you get into the production, that’s where the anxiety starts,” Cook says. “You’ve got these songs. You’ve got these ideas. Now [I] have to figure out how to get there when I maybe don’t have a huge breadth of knowledge to use to get me there. It’s a lot of throwing it to the wall, and seeing what sticks.”

Fans have stuck with Cook over the last 10 years, supporting him in all of his creative endeavors – a fact that isn’t lost on the singer. He realizes that he has a surreal support system that not all artists are fortunate enough to have. His fan base turned up the volume on “Ghost Magnetic,” “Circles,” and “Gimme Heartbreak.” His PledgeMusic campaign paid off in a big way, and Chromance was released on February 16 to a great deal of fanfare. He received a rave response from his latest effort, and told the Inquistir that this is just the beginning of what he has planned for all of his fans out there.

“Having just finished this pledge campaign for Chromance, and now jumping head-first into Broadway, having just got off the road and seeing the response to these new songs, it’s been extremely jarring and humbling,” states Cook. “Hopefully, I can continue to do right by them and put forth good performances, good products, and good music.”