It may have been more than 20 years since he appeared on American Idol, but Clay Aiken stays in touch with his former contestants. The second season runner-up recently opened up about the group chat he has with that season.
Videos by Wide Open Country
"We stay in touch. I mean, I don't see how anybody could go through that experience and not be very good friends with people who they did it with," Aiken said on the Classic Conversations podcast with Jeff Dwoskin. "Our whole season is connected... It's 23 years on, and we still have a thread that we can all pop into and check in with each other, and wish happy birthday and whatnot."
Aiken says that things stay mostly personal in the group chat. They try to stay up to date with each other. "The only time we ever talk business is back when I was touring — and I may be again — folks will come out to the show when you're in their town," he explained.
For instance, Julia DeMato, Charles Grigsby, Carmen Rasumsen and Vanessa Olivarez all came out to watch Aiken and Ruben Studdard perform back in 2023.
Clay Aiken Opens Up
"We sit down and talk crap about, 'Oh, remember such and such,'" he said. "They're those friends who you can get together with and talk to like it hasn't been 23 years."
Aiken ahs maintained a close bond to Studdard in particular over the past two decades. For one, they both competed again on The Masked Singer and also toured together. "I love working with Ruben. I love being around him," said Aiken. "He's my brother."
Aiken isn't the only one who has a group chat. Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks also said they have a group-chat as well.
"Melinda, my beautiful, loving Melinda, she just celebrated a birthday and so we were all making sure that we told her about that, but it's really cool to be able to keep in touch with them because... I feel like I can't speak for other seasons, but for my season we really all got very close, and I don't know what I would've done without all of them," she told PEOPLE in October.
