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Being dropped from a label is painful, no matter who you are. I was publicly dropped after suffering a movie that did almost as bad as Gigli (note: I purposely said almost...miracles do happen), and an album that for all the wonderful songwriters and producers...never saw the light of day. It was my own personal hell, which I'll expand on at a later date, but I will say this much now:

Imagine working for 22 weeks on an amazing and beautiful piece of art. All the while people are praising you and putting you on magazine covers for it. You sweat, you cry, you memorize every detail of your contribution. You build friendships you think will last a lifetime and you know that this is your destiny, and that you will go on to build bigger and better things to show all the world. Now imagine all that joy, hard work, and learning ripped down before your very eyes. All the while people are spitting on you, and kicking you while you're down on your knees in shock and breathless from the sheer absurdity of how quickly it all fell apart.

Nearby, almost on top of the work you created, is a new one being erected, a bigger better one, that has more glamour, and more hands to build it. The only thing you think you can do is avert your eyes and sit in it's shadow.

He's also candid as to what this season needs.

Idol needs to go back to the basics of the first season when the only things selling the show. Just by being ourselves. It wasn't snarky, except for Simon (a good thing). It was fun and distinctly human.

Therein lies the salvation, not that it needs that Idol needs saving. Let's be real. Shows with a fraction of its ratings are called hits. But getting back to the real stories of the contestants will make all the difference in terms of excitement and emotion. There's no need for huge pop stars to come on every week and use the show as one huge advertisement for their albums. Actually picking good vocalists, some of whom can actually play instruments, and maybe (gasp) read music will pay huge dividends down the stretch when one of these contestants has to follow up the charmed Idol life with an actual album of substance in the real world.

http://thebiz.fancast.com/2008/01/justin_guarini_on_american_ido.html