David Roland Cook, born December 20, 1982 in Houston, Texas, raised in Blue Springs, Missouri, changed his fate one day while residing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he decided to accompany his brother Andrew to the American Idol auditions. His parents are Beth Foraker and Stan Cook. He has two

Cook's interest in music began early in life. He began singing in second grade, when his elementary school music teacher, Mrs. Gentry, gave him a solo in a school choir performance. He then proceeded to perform in virtually every Christmas and PTA program he could get his hands on. And if asked, he would give credit for his persistent determination and tenacity to Mrs. Gentry. He received his first guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, at the age of 12. 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. In addition to this, he was an active member in the Blue Springs South High School National Forensics League (or NFL), where he qualified for the national tournament twice for duo interpretation, an event that relies on performance and interpretation of a literary work.

He was also an avid baseball player during high school. After losing interest in sports, due to a "70 mile/hour fast ball", 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. 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."

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. 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.

In 2006, after the breakup of Axium, Cook relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and joined the regional touring band Midwest Kings (MWK), playing guitar, bass, and singing backup vocals. He recorded one EP, Incoherent with Desire to Move On, with the band in 2006.


Cook released a solo independent album, Analog Heart, in 2006 for which he also designed the artwork. The album was chosen as the fourth-best CD released in 2006 by website Music Equals Life. 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. 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. His musical influences include Our Lady Peace, Alice in Chains, Big Wreck, Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell, Switchfoot, Bon Jovi and Collective Soul.

While in Tulsa he was in the early stages of recording his second album when his younger brother Andrew asked Cook to accompany him to Omaha and lend moral support while he tried out for American Idol. Andrew didn’t make the cut, but he encouraged a very reluctant David to try out. “He threatened to beat my ass if I didn’t, so it’s entirely his fault that all this happened to me,” Cook says.

Cook auditioned for American Idol in Nebraska, performing Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" For his first Hollywood audition, Cook performed "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" by Bryan Adams, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. On the second song in Hollywood, he sang "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain. Cook took advantage of the decision to allow contestants to play musical instruments. Besides his Hollywood audition, he also accompanied himself on electric guitar for his performances of "Alright Now," "Hello," "Day Tripper," "I'm Alive," "Baba O'Riley," "Dare You To Move," and "Dream Big," and on acoustic guitar for "Little Sparrow," "All I Really Need Is You," and "The World I know." His white, left-handed Gibson Les Paul electric guitar has the letters "AC" on it; as Cook told TV Guide, "I have two brothers, Adam and Andrew. So, because of superstition, I put their initials on everything growing up." Since the Top 12 week, he also wore (and continues to wear) an orange wristband to support a 7-year-old fan, Lindsey Rose, with leukemia.

Cook's performance of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" was highly praised by all three judges, especially Simon Cowell. Cowell later said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the performance "was in a different league to anything we've heard on the season so far," and although he knew where the arrangement came from (Chris Cornell's remake of the Michael Jackson original), "that doesn't really matter." The performance has received well over 5 million views on Youtube. Another of Cook's performances, The Beatles' "Daytripper", was credited to Whitesnake. Seattle-based band Doxology has claimed that Cook's performance of The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" was based on a version the band recorded over a year before Idol 2008. On April 1, before performing his self-arranged rendition of Dolly Parton's "Little Sparrow" on American Idol, Cook responded to Ryan Seacrest in the interview session, revealing that his performance of "Eleanor Rigby" was based on Neil Zaza's and Doxology's versions. He also reiterated the credits of Whitesnake and Chris Cornell. Despite the controversy, critics praised Cook for choosing versions of songs that fit his vocal style. Cook's arrangements of "Hello," "Little Sparrow," "Always Be My Baby." "All I Really Need Is You," "Baba O'Riley," "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" were original arrangements, and his rendition of Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" was also highly praised, receiving a standing ovation from Randy Jackson.

Cook won the seventh season of American Idol on May 21, 2008, receiving 56% of the votes, with 12 million votes over David Archuleta as the runner-up. Cook then sang "The Time Of My Life," the winning song of the 2008 American Idol Songwriter's Competition. During the finale, Cook appeared in a commercial for the game franchise Guitar Hero, mimicking Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Fellow finalist David Archuleta appeared in a separate commercial parodying the same scene. Both commercials were directed by Brett Ratner.

After winning the hit show, American Idol, Cook hit the road with his fellow Idol contestants for the American Idols Live! Tour, which visited more than 40 cities across the U.S. — an experience he cites as extremely valuable. “Being able to make a 16,000-seat arena feel intimate is one of the trickiest things to pull off,” he says. “If you can get the people in the nosebleed seats to feel as though they’re getting the same show as the people sitting front and center, then you're doing something amazing. That’s always going to be my goal.”

For the Billboard chart week ending May 25, 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 (Hannah Montana) in 2006 when she had six songs debut on the chart. Cook's first single, "The Time of My Life" led the pack, debuting at #3 on the Hot 100. 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. 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. Cook's 17 entries had a combined total of 944,000 digital downloads in the first week of selling. The song also reached #61 in the UK due to downloads alone.

Cook collaborated with Espionage, Ed Roland (Collective Soul), Zac Maloy (The Nixons), Jason Wade (Lifehouse), Niel Tiemann (MWK), Kevin Griffin (Better Than Ezra) and Raine Maida (Our Lady Peace) on his first post-AI album, the self titled David Cook, which was released on Tuesday, November 18, 2008. The producer for the album is Rob Cavallo. The self titled album includes the tracks "Declaration", "Heroes", "Light On", "Come Back To Me", "Life On The Moon", "Bar-ba-sol", "Mr. Sensitive", "Lie", "I Did It For You", "Avalanche", "Permanent", and "A Daily AntheM" with bonus track "The Time Of My Life" and hidden bonus track "Kiss On The Neck". As well as select store bonus tracks "Breathe Tonight" and "My Last Request".

The first main single from the album was announced on Cook's official site titled "Light On", and debuted on September 23, 2008. "Light On" debuted at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cook also announced the musicians who would be part of his band which includes Andy Skib, Neal Teimann, Joey Clement and Kyle Peek on drums.

Comment from his official website about the album: Gutsy and epic, but grounded in the personal, the songs are tailor-made for those magical moments when music, whether it be uplifting or heart-breaking, can transport you to another place, which is exactly what Cook intended. “I want my album to be an exhausting experience, in that you listen to it and have to take a breath to collect yourself, and immediately need to listen to it all over again,” he says. “I want people to hear it and feel like they just ran a 5K marathon.”

David Cook, the album, debuted the week of November 18, 2008 at #1 album on the iTunes overall chart and as of December 3, 2008 has sold 392,000 copies, only 108,000 away from going gold. His music video for the single "Light On" debuted on VH1 at #1.


DISCOGRAPHY

Axium "Matter Of Time" (2002)
Why Do You Care?
Close Your Eyes
Empty Again
Matter of Time
Me
Change
No Free Advice
No Place to Go
Somber
Peace of Mind (Song for Sarah)

Axium "Blindsided" (2003)
Feed Your Ego
Hold
Testament
Just In Case
Clean Break
Thought You Knew
Leave Behind
Truth Is A Gun
Therapy

Axium "The Story Thus Far" (2004)
Callout
AC
Pecking Order
Holding Court
Balance
Whipped
Under Fire
Incarcerate
Unlucky
Colors Of A Bruise
On The Floor
The Finish Line
Uncovered

Midwest Kings Albums (collaboration)
"Incoherent with Desire To More"
"Luna Desierta"

"Analog Heart" (solo - 2006)
Straight Ahead
Don't Say a Word
Fall Back Into Me
The Truth
Searchlights
Porcelain
Stitches
Let Go
Makeover
Silver

"David Cook" (solo - 2008)
Light On
Declaration
Heroes
Come Back To Me
Life on the Moon
Bar-Ba-Sol
Mr. Sensitive
Lie
I Did It For You
Avalanche
Permanent
A Daily AntheM with hidden track "Kiss On The Neck"
Bonus tracks: "Breathe Tonight" and "My Last Request"


"This Loud Morning" (solo 2011)
1. Circadian (David Cook - David Hodges - Neal Tiemann)
2. Right Here, with You (David Cook, John Rzeznik, Ryan Star, Gregg Wattenberg )
3. We Believe (David Cook, Julian Emery, Irving J. Lawrence)
4. Fade Into Me (David Cook, Kevin Griffin, Jamie Houston
5. Hard to Believe (David Cook / David Hodges / Jess Cates / Lindy Robbins)
6. Take Me As I Am (David Cook, M Frederiksen, Scott Stephens)
7. Time Marches On (David Cook, Marti Frederiksen)
8. The Last Goodbye (David Cook, Ryan Tedder)
9. Paper Heart (David Cook, Julian Emery, Irving J. Lawrence)
10. 4 Letter Word (David Cook, Claude Kelly, Matt Squire)
11. Goodbye to The Girl (David Cook, Andy Skib, Neal Tiemann)
12. Rapid Eye Movement (David Cook, David Hodges)

Bonus tracks deluxe album:
* This is Not the Last Time (David Cook, David Hodges, Chris Destefano)
* Let Me Fall For You" (David Cook, Rune Westberg)

 

   David is on the road again!



CHECK OUT
OUR NEW TOUR
SECTION!!!
New singles:

"Fade Into Me"


   

"The Last Goodbye"


   



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