Ryan Adams Befuddles American Idol Judges

Updated:

April 14, 2015 3:24 pm

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“I don’t know Ryan Adams,” Jennifer Lopez admitted on American Idol last night, “and I know a lot of music.”

It was idol night on the program, where contestants chose to cover a song by their musical hero, and Nashville-based rocker Paul McDonald chose alt-country balladeer Ryan Adams. After spending the day working on the song with Don Was and Jimmy Iovine, McDonald performed Adams’ “Come Pick Me Up,” from Heartbreaker.

McDonald employed his trademark vocal rasp, and danced a goofy dance that had Ryan Seacrest imitating him after the judging. As for Steven Tyler and J. Lo, they hoped and fretted that “America gets” what McDonald was trying to do. Randy Jackson, however, “loves Ryan Adams,” and name-dropped Wilco and Whiskeytown. Yeah, Dawg.

Adams’ next record, the limited-edition EP Class Mythology, is due April 16.

What was your favorite performance from last night? Ours was Haley Reinhart singing LeAnn Rimes’ “Blue.”