How to be an ideal Idol

Kelly Clarkson

There's something you might not know about Kelly Clarkson, from the mouth of the American Idol herself: "I have multiple personalities."

Anyone who has studied her lyrics may have already worked this out. "I can breathe for the first time," she sings on Since U Been Gone before lapsing into asthmatic trauma on Behind those Hazel Eyes and Addicted: "I can't breathe."

On the phone from London, one of many foreign cities on her promo schedule this month, Clarkson is only joking of course. The only personality she has revealed is the polite, effervescent one that in 2002 become the first American Idol.

But it's no accident that this southern belle with the big voice has cheated the Idol curse and survived two tough years in the music industry to come out the other side in control of her career.

Where countless Idol winners have been crowned then promptly forgotten, Clarkson has earned her stardom.

"I'm very blunt and I expect people to be blunt with me," she says. "I spent the first two years in this business being sweet and never saying anything. But you don't need to be sweet about it."

Take Since U Been Gone, the break-up hit about "waking up after the month of depression and crappiness" that heralded her edgy new direction, confirmed her credibility and spawned a slew of dance-remix knock-offs.

Clarkson had already recorded most of her second album, Breakaway, when it came time to put the song to disc. The label wanted straight pop fare, instructing the producers keep it that way. Clarkson didn't.

"I said, 'I think it's too poppy and I don't like that'. Luckily, neither did the producers. So we rocked it up with more guitars and heavier drums.

"In the bridge I wasn't even supposed to go that high. Then all of a sudden I was like, 'I'm gonna try something' and I just totally went for it. I'm always very involved with how it's recorded."

It's not the only song on the album that embraces her rock side and there are several songs she had a hand in. Elsewhere, Avril Lavigne wrote the the title track, and former Evanescence members Ben Moody and David Hodges injected a darker element to songs such as Because of You and Addicted. On Walk Away Clarkson sounds as feisty as Pink.

Anyone who has seen her music videos will know she now sports a nose ring, looks quite at home ripping shreds from a skimpy wet T-shirt, and can belt out a venomous, rocky growl. Not exactly Courtney Love, but a more compelling image than her girl-next-door persona on Idol.

When she performs in New Zealand on November 22 it won't be the concert people will expect, she says. You can forget multiple outfit changes or for Clarkson to swing onto the stage on a trapeze. But you can expect an acoustic set and a blues jam with her band.

"It's very high energy, more rock than people think, like not rock as in Metallica, more like a classic kind of rock feel."

Clarkson has been with her band for nearly four years and refers to them as her extended family. But her own upbringing wasn't easy. She grew up in Burleson, Texas, and her parents split when she was a child. She stayed with her mother, her brother with their father, and her sister with an aunt.

Sure about her path from a young age, she moved to LA in her late teens and got a handful of small TV parts. Then she returned to Texas, where she worked as a cocktail waitress.

Then came the talent quest that has since made household names - albeit for a short period - of United States winners Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken. Why has Clarkson done so much better?

"This competition can be a very good thing and a very bad thing," Clarkson says. "You get thrown into Michael Jackson or Madonna status overnight and, for a week or whatever, you're like very big.

"You have to be able to handle that and deal with what your decisions are. So that might be a reason. I knew exactly the record I wanted to make, I knew that I wanted to write on the record, all these things."

Despite this, it didn't make the life changes any easier to deal with.

Travelling is now "like walking" but Clarkson had a tough time coming to terms with her rapid success. She would often wake up wondering if it was a big mistake. "I'm very spiritual so I'm never alone. I always have God with me. But I used to cry to my mom going, 'I never want to do this'.

"It's hard, any job, the first couple of years ... the hardest part is the beginning.

"I wasn't working with the best people and no one was on my team at one point - absolutely no one. And I don't want to live my life fighting people."

Two years on, Clarkson has made a few adjustments. She now works with her friends - Ashley, who does her hair and makeup and New Zealander Emma, her stylist.

When she accepted an MTV award earlier this year, Clarkson brought Ashley up on stage with her. "I don't have a posse. I'm a very work ethic girl. I'm very into getting things done."

But there's one friend who is no longer a part of the Clarkson entourage, and that's Idol creator Simon Fuller, her former manager who she calls "one of the sweetest people I've ever met". They parted company earlier this year. There was nothing sinister in the break-up, she says, it's just that Fuller was too busy with other things.

Even so, it does seems a sensible thing to gradually dissociate herself from the show. Clarkson says Idol provided a platform for her talent, but she doesn't like to give it too much credit: "They set up the stage. You choose your songs, you choose what you're going to wear and you choose what you're going to say.

"It's also something you don't wanna hold onto. It should always be you that makes you successful, something holding onto you and not you holding onto something."

So that's why the album's called Breakaway?

"No, it seriously has nothing to do with that.

"My first couple years were really rough and it took me a while to realise that I was the boss. Not bossy - but I was the leader of it and I needed to tell people how I felt and what I wanted, and it took me a while to be able to say that without feeling like I was being a diva.

"I'm breaking away from that naive, innocent rookie into someone who's a bit more wise."

LOWDOWN

WHO: Kelly Clarkson, first American Idol winner, now bona fide popstar
AGE: 23
RELEASES: Thankful (2003), Breakaway (2005)
ODD JOBS: Clarkson has appeared on an episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, worked at a movie theatre, promoted energy drinks and served cocktails at a comedy club.
SEE HER: November 22 at the Logan Campbell Centre