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I agree with all the above negative comments. Nikki McKibbon, Angela Peel and Patrick Lake were all rockers who preceded Constantine and Bo was both more of a rocker AND got further on the show the same year. I'd also give honorable mentions to Ryan Starr (my first Idol crush) and Nadia Turner. People who think Nikki was NOT a rocker are being so exclusionary that I wonder why they'd bother to watch Idol at all.

Let me clarify my "exclusionary" comment for Seaguy and others. I was being too vague, so an explanation is in order.

Some people, including a few sucksters, are incredible purists when it comes to how "rockers" are defined on Idol. Simon is one of them. In his book, his calls Nikki (or maybe it was Ryan) "a sheep in Wolf's clothing," and argues, (fairly persuasively, if you accept his various caveats) that a REAL rocker would never audition for the show. The gist of Simon's argument seems to be that AI is commercial TV, and that people who compete on the show have to sign contracts and accept lots of rules, etc. Therefore, a REAL rocker would BY DEFINITION stay away, because competing on the show means "selling out."

This point can certainly be defended, but in my opinion it's way too restrictive. If Simon is thinking only of punk rockers (who were/are much bigger in England than the US) than yeah, he's kind of right. But I think you CAN be a real, genuine rock singer without embracing ALL the nihilistic, anti-commercial, punk aspects of rock. Are David Cook, Michael Johns, Chris Daughtry and Bo Bice real rockers? Yes, I think so. Did they have to compromise their vision somewhat to appear on the show? Of course - everybody does. Did they automatically lose their credibility as rockers simply by the act of trying out for American Idol? If you say yes to this question, you are the sort of exclusionary person I was thinking of.

There's also a double standard at work here. NOBODY ever says that R&B or Country singers have lost all credibility or sold out whem they have to sing Broadway showtunes, jazz, or the greatest hits of 1951 while on the show. And yet somehow, rockers do lose all their credibility in some people's eyes the moment they go out of their genre. So a lot of this cynicism about "real" rockers is just bullshit.