Yahoo!: "Operation Gentle Storm"

In Los Angeles this week, I sat down face to face with Reality Rocks columnist Lyndsey Parker, managing editor of Yahoo! Music. What a great time... and a rockin' column. Click on the link above to see the video!

Gentle Thoughts: Norman Gentle On 'Idol' Season 9 Vs. 'Idol' Season 8
by Lyndsey Parker 

Season 9 of "American Idol" finally wraps this week, after four months of being unfavorably compared to Season 8 (aka The. Best. Season. Ever). Season 9 was just missing so much compared to last year. Season 9 didn't have Adam Lambert. Season 9 didn't have Allison Iraheta. Season 9 didn't have Matt Giraud. Season 9 didn't have Wild Cards, "Slow Ride," birdcalls, "Heartless," Jackie Tohn, or even Tatiana Del Toro. But perhaps most distressingly, Season 9 didn't have comedic genius Norman Gentle, just when suffering "Idol"-watchers really could've used a laugh.

Norman Gentle stole the show last season with his shiny shirts and even shinier personality, and he delivered a swan-song version of "And I Am Telling You, I'm Not Going" so memorable, so iconic, it almost erased all memories of even Jennifer Hudson's version. Since Norman's tragic and premature exit from the show, he's been laying low as he's worked on his 2010 plan for world domination, and now, with an "Idol" correspondent gig for "The Wendy Williams Show" and a new single, "Brit Slap" (a sassy farewell song for Simon Cowell), Operation Gentle Storm is in full effect.

Norman journeyed to L.A. this week to continue out that plan by bumrushing the "Idol" finale, so of course I needed to pick his headbanded-swaddled brain about what he thought about Season 9, Lee DeWyze versus Crystal Bowersox, and his famous Season 8 castmates Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. And Norman brought a cardboard comrade along to share its own British-accented, two-dimensional thoughts, natch.

And I am telling you...this interview is awesome...

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