I’ve watched most of American Idol this season. Yup, it’s true. When you only get 3.5 channels on your television, American Idol does a fine job of blowing away the competition. While I mostly enjoy watching young people take their best shots at living their dream, I must say that I’ve taken a shine to Blake this season.

First, he performed a 311 song and mentioned that they were his favorite band. (They are one of my favorites and I listen to their fine album, Evolver, as I type this out).

But more to the point, while there are arguably more talented singers in the competion, none is more of an original performer than Blake. He brings his unique style to each performance; he knows what differentiates himself from everyone else and he leverages his strengths.

Last week, he put his stamp on a Bon Jovi classic, You Give Love a Bad Name. Before his performance, Jon Bon Jovi remarked that he thought Blake was taking a big risk by tinkering with such a well known, popular song. Blake responded that he was aware of the risk and that he was fine with it.

To me, he seemed perfectly okay with the risk because he was betting on himself. If people didn’t like it, and he lost the competion, so be it.

We never regret coming from our authentic selves. It’s only when we let our concerns (fears) of what other people will think of us, and modify our behavior in hopes of being accepted/liked/loved that we later find ourselves in the hole of regret.

In order to be a true rockstar in life, you need a couple things:

1) You need to know what makes you great.

2) You need to honor that. Always.

Rock on.

And just because the magic of the Interweb makes it so easy,  I’ll post a video from Blake’s inspiration and his performance from the other night…