Kimberley Locke on pal Clay Aiken: “I kept his secret because that’s what friends do.”

Out.com has a great new interview with Kimberley Locke who first came into the spotlight in 2002 when she appeared on the second season of American Idol. She finished third behind runner up Clay Aiken and winner Ruben Studdard and has been working steadily since the show.

Here are some highlights from the Out interview:

On hiding Clay Aiken’s secret that he was gay: I never saw Clay on Manhunt. I’ll be honest with you — Clay shared with me that he was gay early on in the competition… It wasn’t really a secret to me but it wasn’t really my place to push him in any direction. That’s his thing. And that’s anybody’s thing who’s not ready to come out — you’ve got to do it in your own time because your life changes after that. It’s not one of those things you can say and take back. You’ve got to answer a lot of questions for it. So, I did know and people grilled me about it and people asked me, every interview that I did, they were like, “So, is Clay gay? So, you live with Clay — is he gay? So, you and Clay are really best friends…” And I’m like, “You know what, I don’t know. Ask him.” It’s not my place to tell. So, I kept his secret because that’s what friends do. They keep your secrets. My friends better keep my secrets!

On what she hated about American Idol: One of the things I didn’t like about Idol was the Ford commercials. It was like, “Come on.” For a lack of a better word they would whore us out, we did all these commercials for free, they got to use our image and our names. But the thing that upset me the most about it is that it took up so much time in our day. We were already exhausted running around doing press, people pulling us in a thousand directions, now we’ve go to do Coke and Ford and all these different spots for the sponsors. Those things would take, like, an entire day. Some nights we wouldn’t get finished from doing just that until midnight. It’s like, “Really?” And then they’re like, “Practice your song in your sleep.” I was like, “Really? Come on.” So, the Ford commercials were kind of annoying. And, we didn’t get a car. So, go figure.

On whether or not American Idol is still relevant: I think that they’re going to have to go back to the raw talent. The other night, on the show, I think everybody except for two people, maybe, played the guitar. I don’t play an instrument. I love people who play instruments — I think it’s great — but American Idol is a singing competition and I think it distracts and it takes away. I think some of them are better musicians than they are singers — if you really want to know the truth about it. When I was on American Idol it was about raw talent; you had a microphone, a microphone stand, a spotlight, and a track. We didn’t even have a band on my season! So, I do think it’s still a great way to find talent. I think they just need to get back to the basics of singing.

Find the complete interview with video here: http://www.out.com/detail.asp?page=1&id=26822