Simon Cowell can be one sour sucker. But he was right about one thing on Wednesday night's edition of "American Idol," which featured excerpts from the show's auditions in Atlanta.
Cowell told General Larry Platt that not only was he too old, at age 62, to be on the show, but that he didn't have the talent. That said, Cowell added, his self-written audition number, "Pants on the Ground," just might be a hit.
The show ended not only with Platt singing the song again, but with masses of would-be Idols singing it in harmony. By this morning, it was being played on the radio and was pretty much -- like it or not -- cemented in the heads of millions of Americans.
By this morning, the Atlanta Journal Constitution had posted an interview with Platt, getting his reaction to the sudden celebrity.
Platt told Rodney Ho that he was inspired to create the song when he saw a guy walking down a downtown Atlanta street with a baby in his arm and his pants below his hips.
"He had his underwear showing," Platt recalled. The song came to him spontaneously. He started chanting the chorus to "Pants on the Ground."
Other information gleaned from the interview:
- Platt does not now have a job and is on disability.
- The show's producers knew he was beyond the 16- to 28-year-old age range but put him before the judges anyway because they heard his song and thought it would be good entertainment.
- Platt is not a real general. He uses that title to refer to his crusading during the civil rights movement.
- He was shot in the eye when he was 3.
- He's now had offers to record the song and is entertaining them.
As the blogger noted, Platt better act fast while the eye of celebrity is on him. For much of today, "American Idol last night" and "American Idol pants on the ground" were top Google searches.
- Read the complete Platt interview.
- Read a story looking into Platt's activities in the civil rights era.