American Idol Judges 2014: Pet Shop Boy's Neil Tennant Refused to Replace Simon Cowell
It appears not every musician desires a turn as an American Idol judge.
Neil Tennant, one half of the electronic duo Pet Shop Boys, claims he refused the reality TV position back in 2010.
Approached by the hit Fox show, Tennant was intended to replace Simon Cowell following the icon's departure to X Factor. However, Tennant had never seen the American program and originally refused to travel to Los Angeles for a meeting.
"Anyway, I got them to send me a DVD of the programme. I watched the first two minutes and I just thought, 'I can't do this,'" Tennant said, according to Popjustice. "I couldn't do the bit where you come out, holding hands with the judges, and just stand there. I was flattered to be asked, though."
How he wound up on Idol's casting radar, the musician is unsure.
"I think they wanted a b-tchy gay Englishman, and I think someone said, 'get that guy from the Pet Shop Boys," Tennant told Popjustice.
When considering the job, Tennant put the concerns of his primary music project before the possibility of a television career.
"My issue, as much as anything else, was that I don't think it's possible to be 'Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys' and 'Neil Tennant, American Idol judge,'" Tennant mused. "I think the Pet Shop Boys 'project', as we call it nowadays, would have been totally compromised and I would have just become Neil Tennant the TV personality."
While American Idol is currently on the hunt for judges once more, it seems rather unlikely they would court Tennant again considering his adamant rejection of the original offer.
