American Idol's James Durbin Sings “Closer to the Edge” on the Top 5 Show

James Durbin, American Idol Season 10's Heavy Metal Rocker (turned Rocker-Lite tonight), performed “Closer to the Edge” by 30 Seconds to Mars as his first song on the Top 5 'Now~and~Then' Show. Sheryl Crow sat in as guest celebrity mentor, and sang along with James in rehearsals. "You fit in this material better than you fit in 1980's Rock," says Producer Jimmy Iovine. "What I heard James do on this 30 Seconds to Mars song is really promising for his future."

James takes the stage like it's his own arena show, rather than an American Idol telecast, again. He sounds great on the chorus, getting in a few of his screams, but is a little pitchy on the verses. Just when James was starting to make a Metal fan out of me, he pulls out something very boring like this. I hope this isn't the direction he's going to head in when he records his own album after the show. We have enough cookie-cutter, vanilla-white Idols boys putting out the same sounding stuff. The crowd and all three judges really seemed to enjoy it. Steven Tyler raved, "James man, I think you kicked that songs ass. Nice goin', Man. Beautiful. The way you worked the audience, you’re ready for Freddy. (Weird thing for Steven to say. "Ready for Freddy" means you're ready for the undertaker...)

Jennifer Lopez broke in to say, "You're ready for stadiums. We talked about who's going to come out here and grab it, who's going to take it. And the past few weeks, you’ve been showing us that you want it. Grab it. Take it. It’s yours to take, James." Randy Jackson said, "30 Seconds to Mars, is a great contemporary Rock song. I think you fit well there. Now you're showing us where you could go as an artist, and the type of record you could make, so it doesn't date you just in an older Rock category. JAMES IS IN IT TO WIN IT, AMERICA! THIS GUY RIGHT HERE WANTS IT! HE WANTS IT, RYAN!