American Idol's upcoming thirteenth season will kick off with a two-night premiere on Wednesday, January 15 at 8PM ET/PT followed by Thursday, January 16 at 8PM ET/PT on Fox.

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The premiere episode of the new edition will feature contestants auditioning for newbie judge Harry Connick Jr. and veteran judges Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban in Austin and Boston. Randy Jackson will take on the in-house mentor role this season and Ryan Seacrest will return as host.

Although he's a first-time judge, Harry previously served as a guest mentor on American Idol. Keith will be a member of the judging panel for his second season in a row after sitting beside Randy, Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey last season. Jennifer is also coming back to the panel after being absent from the show's twelfth season. She previously judged the show's eleventh edition alongside Randy and Steven Tyler.

During a recent conference call with reporters, Harry talked about his American Idol experience thus far. Below is the first half of his interview. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.

Can you talk about your journey to becoming an Idol judge?  Is it because you did such a great job mentoring the contestants last season?  What made you want to do it?

Harry Connick Jr.: Well, my whole life has been a lot of interaction with people who are a lot better than I am whether it's in a one-on-one teaching situation or a clinic or mentorship or master class, and as I got older, I started to be on the giving end of those things. 

I would spend a lot of time talking to kids in high school, college, even professional people about how they can improve.  So, I feel very comfortable in that kind of environment. 

So, when American Idol called a few years ago to ask me to be a mentor, it felt like a very natural thing to do. And then they called me back last year to do it again and I had a great time.  I really, really enjoyed spending time with those talented young performers.

Then they called and asked me if I wanted to be a judge, which is different than being a mentor because you don't really have the intensity of the interaction but you get to share your views with a lot more people and try to help them develop their talent.  So, it just felt like a natural thing to do.

Plus, I love television. I love being in front of an audience; I love talking about music.  So, there are a lot of things about being on American Idol that I really, really like.  It feels really good so far.

How does your wife support you when you're on American Idol? It's obviously a huge time commitment.

Harry Connick Jr.: Well, she is a big fan of the show.  We've watched the show since the very first episode and we've watched it every year since.  We're big fans, and she always kind of would say, "It would be great to see you as a judge," which made me feel nice because she supports me in so many ways.

I respect her very much, and just the fact that she could see me up there, really always made me feel nice.  And then when it actually happened, she was just delighted because I'm her husband and she loves the show and she's really excited about this.

Why do you think you and your wife are perfect together?

Harry Connick Jr.: Why are we perfect together?  There are so many variables that make up a relationship.  There are too many to mention.  I think at the forefront is she's my best friend.  She is the first one I go to when I want to talk about things or when I want to have fun or whatever, and now that we have children together, we just love being with each other. 

We both take marriage seriously and thought about it for awhile before we jumped in, and I think it's a lot of things, but those are some of the reasons for sure.

How are the relationships going with the other judges and what do you bring to the table that's a little different from them?

Harry Connick Jr.: Well, first of all, I really love being up there with them.  They're extremely bright people, highly successful, have very strong work ethics and very strong convictions about what they do, and they're the best in the business at their respective jobs.  We're completely different.  We're different brains, different personalities, different philosophies. 

I think what I bring to it is I have a lot of experience as a player, as a singer and as a kind of an overall entertainer that's unique to my own life.  It's like the movies I've done are different than the ones that Jennifer's done and the concerts I've played are different than Keith's.  So, just by virtue of our own experience, I think I can bring something a little bit different.

Last year, there was a general feeling the male talent in the competition wasn't quite up to par with the women.  What's your take so far, now that you're in Hollywood Week, on how the guys are performing this time around?

Harry Connick Jr.: There's some crazy guy talent, for real, no joke.  There are some guys that are really good, some great young women too.  So, it's hard to say if it's a 50/50 split. 

It's impossible to know and we certainly would never try to reach any kind of quota because that would be biased I think, but we just respond to the people that we see.  But I guess the feeling is that it's about half and half -- maybe two more girls than guys -- but I think it's about even.

Adding guitars, how has that impacted things?  Do you think it's a good thing or not such a good thing?

Harry Connick Jr.: I think it's a great thing because it's very telling.  When people pick up the guitar and they're not good players, it shows immediately that A) they should put the guitar down, and B) a lot of the decisions that they make as singers are not dissimilar to what they're doing on the guitar. 

In other words, if you're playing some chords that make no sense, that person can't hear.  So, when they sing, it's obvious why they're making the choices they're making.  You also have to remember like there's this weird "ignorance is bliss" kind of attitude. 

These people are coming up there playing guitar in front of Keith Urban.  That takes some guts.  And maybe they don't realize what they're doing and maybe their family and friends have told them that they're really good and, "You should go on American Idol."

But eventually, they're going to have a realization that, "Uh-oh. Maybe I'm not quite as good as I thought."  And then, there may be some people that pick it up and you're like, "Oh, this person sounds great with a guitar and that's the kind of artist they are."  So, I think it's all around a good thing because it's very telling.

I know when you served as a mentor last season, you put a lot of emphasis on the importance of the contestants understanding the meaning of the lyrics of the songs that they chose in order to give their performance more depth.  Is this something you're going to be looking for now that you're a judge?

Harry Connick Jr.: Yes, that's huge.  Unless they're singing a tune that's really a groove-based tune, like a lot of those disco tunes that I grew up listening to, it's really not about the lyrics.  The lyrics are just kind of there to have you sing something.  It's really about a dance tune. 

So, sometimes they sing tunes that the lyrics really aren't that important and I really don't care, but if they're going to sing a lyric, then you have to really start picking it apart.  Sometimes, they'll listen to you when you say, "Understand the words," but then they'll over-sing it or maybe it's kind of one dimensional.  There is a lot of little roads you can go down for improvement, but absolutely. 

These are singers.  You need to know how to sing a song.  You need to know what you're singing about, and interestingly to me, that is not that important to a lot of singers.  They just sing but they're not connected to the lyrics.  That's profound to me, but it's interesting to talk about.  I'm glad we have a chance to do it on this great show.

Many Idol alumni have gone on to have successful careers, even some recently appearing on Broadway.  I was wondering if you had a chance to catch Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood performance in The Sound of Music live recently?

Harry Connick Jr.: I didn't.  I did not see it.  I was on a movie set, but I'm a big Carrie Underwood fan, so I'm sure she did a great job, but I haven't seen it yet.

You have obviously been on the show before in a mentoring role and now you're going to be judge.  Have you found that the experience is different?  Is this measuring up to what it was when you were on the show as a mentor?  Is it completely different for you?

Harry Connick Jr.: Well, it's different, but it's not a surprise.  I know what the show is.  So, I was really familiar with what it would be like to be a judge, and from the very first contestant that we saw in Boston, it just felt very natural. 

You go sit in that chair, you're with two people that you respect very much and like very much, and people start coming in and singing, and that's it -- all gets turned on.  You zone in on them and you critique that performance and it's exciting stuff.

How does it feel in the room without Randy on the judging panel?  This is the first time the show doesn't have Randy during Hollywood Week.  How would you say it's going there without him?

Harry Connick Jr.: Randy Jackson is great.  He's a great musician.  He's legendary in this show and he's an icon for the many, many years of great television that he provided to all of us, but it's a new show now. 

It has different producers, different directors, different panel, different contestants.  It has a new look; It has a new feel.  And it's a new day for this great show.  Fortunately for all of us, Randy is still a huge part of it as a mentor and I think the kids are going to be very lucky to have him on their side.

Above is the first half of Harry Connick Jr.'s recent interview with reporters. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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