Rona rolls out a longshot

For this week's Idol coaching assignment, I asked each coach to choose a "longshot" (which I defined rather narrowly as anyone not named Carly or David Archuleta) and provide guidance on a winning strategy. Here's Rona Elliot's take:

> Michael Johns

This year’s Idol competition forever removes the stain of and conversation and speculation about Sanjaya Malakar’s marginal talent and why he hung on so long last season. This year, the Idol team selected a pack of unusually gifted competitors (save a couple) who it would be easy to imagine as professional, successful musicians were there but a flourishing record industry!

This would be the post-Sanjaya effect that I believe Idol producers were committed to to recover their reputation as serious star-making machines (if you don’t mind the Joni Mitchell reference). The only issue I see with this years’ contestants is that they have the misfortune to be judged against the uber- talented duo of the young David Archuleta and the singing steamroller Irish transplant Carly Smithson, who reduce, in my opinion, the others to mere memories after their performances.

And yes, David screwed up really badly last week, but this will allow him to be humble and redeem himself, something Idol does brilliantly if the voters go along and forgive him, making it an even greater story than it already is.

So the coaching assignment that landed in our team's inbox this week was to select an underdog and offer our advice on how to both stay in the game and distinguish themselves in a brutal competition. I chose the affable Aussie, Michael Johns, who I think has a lot going for him and who could in my opinion, carve out a successful and notable career in rock 'n' roll if he plays his cards right.

First, why I like the guy and why I think he could be a stealth contender. Michael Johns is liked by both men and women: an often overlooked but very critical quality to succeed in rock, in my opinion. Sting has this quality: What man wouldn’t want to be Sting, what woman doesn’t want Sting in the biblical sense? Michael Hutchence had it; Robert Palmer had it. Not every rock star has this duality of appealing to both sexes, equally but for different reasons, and I believe Michael Johns has within him those seeds.

He is affable and charismatic in a mellow way, easy to watch, pleasant in personality, attractive but not threatening, and has an extremely natural performing style. He’s a rock 'n' roll guy but he’s not working it very hard like David Hernandez did for a few weeks. It just is there. Johns seems to be a guy who could hit a few tennis balls (he’s a player who came to school in the USA on a tennis scholarship), then put the racquet down and have a beer and then sing a few hits. It would all be believable, and he’d make it look natural, not like the actors in all the movie musicals who suddenly start singing.

<More specifics from Rona, and a Beatles song suggestion for Lennon/McCartney Week the Sequel, follow.>

So here’s what he needs to do to continue developing his game. Johns needs to still hone his image, appearance and projection of being a rock star, without increasing his ego or obvious sense of self- importance. Having reviewed his Idol interviews online, I think Johns needs to stop scratching his head and face while other people are asking him questions! He’s self-conscious in front of the camera. Come on, Michael, you’re a pro now! His clothes already work for the rock-star image: a T-shirt, a leather jacket, slightly unshaven, mussed hair a la Bon Jovi, Bruce, and yes, the guys from INXS, the other Aussies and big influences in his life. Nobody is trying too hard, he’s got that down.

So we’ve got the package together, and now what to do about his performing style and song choice to keep him in the game as the weeks go by. When I watch him onstage I know there is more soulfulness there that I feel hasn’t been tapped or Johns hasn’t explored yet himself. He says Otis Redding is a big influence, Queen and David Bowie. These guys are all huge, dramatic performers, and that is NOT the way Johns puts himself out there now. You gotta dig in, find it and go for it, Michael. This competition is for your life, your future!

With that in mind, what I selected for him for this week is one of the great and still mysterious Beatles tunes: She Came in Through the Bathroom Window off the Abbey Road album, recorded September 1969. It could take Michael to places inside himself where he just hasn’t been while he sings. Remember, the judges have accused him of being too mellow or boring, and there is nothing mellow or casual about that song. It’s been nearly 40 years and still no one really knows what the song means; but it has huge feelings and you want to sing along with it, an important component for Michael to reach out with and connect with his fans.

Johns would need to find a way to deliver She Came in Through the Bathroom Window both dramatically, and with some blues and humor in it -- and not repeat Joe Cocker's legendary arrangement. He needs to put an edge in it, to show he can have an edge. This song would force him to tell the story of this crazy chick coming in “through the bathroom window.” What an image to sell. He’d need to be deeply involved in the song and make each word meaningful to spin its fantastic nonsensical lyrics and premise convincingly.

The song would be so unexpected given Johns’ repertoire of the last few weeks that it would force folks watching to sit up and pay attention and reconsider him. Plus, of course, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window is pure absurdity. And, while it’s absolutely not the tone of Norwegian Wood, it also tells a story that sucks you in, so Johns would have the viewers' attention. His challenge would be to keep it on him through his unexpected delivery. Maybe a more whispery, intense, focused arrangement with a little darkness!

Michael Johns needs to show us he has other tricks up his sleeve. That,in addition to being a rocker, he has the capacity to do something completely different and moving. He needs to create a reality through his performance that demands that you consider him as a singer who can do a variety of things, not just the nice mellow Aussie guy that if he gets voted off, well, that’s no big deal, we’ve seen it all before. Michael Johns is a guy that’s got it all; he’s a grown-up at 29, at the top of Idol age range, 12 years older than David Archuleta with a whole set of life experiences behind him, stashed away already that he can sing from. Now, Johns needs to get up on that stage and give us a glimpse into what some of them have been and where his hunger to win is coming from. Lose the mellow -- give us some edge. The men and women will both love it.