Clay Aiken's new 'On My Way Here' album to be released May 6

Clay Aiken's new album is on its way.


The American Idol second-season runner-up's fourth album -- "On My Way Here" -- is scheduled to drop May 6 via 19 Recordings/RCA, Billboard confirmed Friday.

With his role of Sir Robin in Monty Python's Spamalot at the Shubert Theatre scheduled to conclude May 4, Aiken had previously stated he was "hoping" the album would be out May 6.

"On My Way Here" is being produced by Kipper, a U.K.-based producer best known for working on Sting's Grammy-award winning "Brand New Day" album.

"We wanted to find someone who had a great reputation and had done stuff in the past that was kind of edgy and current," Aiken said about Kipper during a February interview with WRAL-TV, a North Carolina CBS affiliate.


Aiken said "On My Way Here" will include "stuff that I'd imagine 90 percent of people have not heard," adding all the album's tracks "have to be something I'll enjoy and that I can do well" while also fitting with the "common theme of 'On my way here.'"

"We've captured some really great moments," Kipper told WRAL-TV. "I'm very optimistic we're going to have a record where people will go, 'Is that Clay? Is that Clay Aiken?'"

In addition to the album's title track, Aiken said he was also working on a song for it called "Ashes".

"Someone told me what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger," he told WRAL-TV. "[The song] talks about bad things that might happen to you. You know, there's been some stuff that's happened in the last five years that I would rather have not happened, but you learn from things like that."

Aiken hinted a song he wrote with producer David Foster -- "Lover All Alone" -- might also be included after only previously being available as an iTunes bonus track on "A Thousand Different Ways."


"It was my first attempt at writing anything, and David Foster wrote the melody," Aiken told WRAL-TV. "He said, 'Take it home and write some lyrics.'  [After seven months] I was sitting in Los Angeles, and all of a sudden, I had this idea, and I wrote it in, maybe, 15 minutes."

"On My Way Here" will be Aiken's first album since Fall 2006's "A Thousand Different Ways," which consisted mostly of covers.

Aiken is expected to embark on a U.S. tour this summer to promote the album, Billboard reported.






About The Author: Christopher Rocchio