Happy Birthday Clay!

Courtney Davis
News Photographer




The day before Clay Aiken's birthday, WRAL anchor Lynda Loveland and I had the pleasure of being invited in to the star's home. He doesn't often invite in the media, and who can blame him? Fans can do some strange things. Heck, even we, the media, have been known to do some odd things in order to get the 'scoop'.




On this day I guess it can be said that Lynda and I were getting the scoop on Clay's new North Carolina home. Lovely, my affectionate name for my favorite traveling Clay Aiken companion, and I have been invited into the Aiken household before. We were able to check out his place in LA a few years ago after a taping of a Nick at Night holiday special. It was a nice place, but his new place, closer to home, is much more fitting. His mother, Faye Parker, did a wonderful job decorating! Although most of the Christmas decorations were not in place just yet, Clay did have a very special tree decorated. In his assistant Jennifer's office was a tree dedicated to all the trimmings his fans had sent in over the years.




In other parts of the house Clay showed us how blue played an important role in the kitchen. Even Raleigh, his little doggie companion, has blue dinner dishes.





Although, the dining room was totally green ... so Clay fans don't think you've pinpointed his favorite color!

He had a fabulous theater in the basement ... perfect for watching WRAL. Ok, or CNN or the fantastic collection of movies! But it was what we found in the lounge area connected to his brother's bedroom that we found most interesting. In the room saved for his brother, Brett who is currently serving in the armed forces, we found his award collection. In a cabinet stands his TV Guide Award, his American Music Award (which Lovely and I were in LA for the celebration), his Gloden Globe and his Relly.




The Relly is an award given out to guests on the Regis and Kelly Show. His Relly is for Favorite Guest Musician. Recently he was asked back to host the show. I'm guessing most of you know what happened from there. Well, as good journalists we have to pose the question ... 'What was that all about'? And Clay was very open about what he thought happened. It was a great story! An even better scoop. And how many of us can really laugh at ourselves and the situations we get into?

Watch the promo video!

I have to give a lot of credit to this guy. I remember the days leading up to that Idol finale. You guessed it. Lovely and I were in LA for that too. But in those days, weeks, months before Idol, I remember thinking 'What's going to become of this kid when it's all said and done?'. Fortunately, I can tell you he's still the same playful person he was, but with a lot more responsibility and lot more eyes on him. Way to go Clay! Keep up the good work and Happy Birthday.