Despite his musical background playing with the band Axium and self-releasing the album Analog Heart, this scruffy 25-year-old bartender from Missouri had never planned to audition for American Idol; he merely showed up at the open call with his auditioning younger brother, Andrew. Andrew did not make it through, but David actually made it all the way to the top, winning over viewers with rocked-out covers of Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Michael Jackson songs and subsequently beating out frontrunner David Archuleta in a bit of a finale upset. David's debut single, the coronation ballad "The Time Of My Life," immediately went to number one on the iTunes chart. He is going out on the American Idols Live tour in summer '08, and is expected to release his major-label debut this year on BMG.
