James Durbin: The Man Behind the 'Beautiful Disaster'

Hey guys, this is James Durbin, and we're going to be playing you a song. A single called "Love Me Bad" off of my new album, "Memories of a Beautiful Disaster."

Cigarette fills an empty room.

You worked with so many cool people on Idol that I'm sure you were just like, the list was running out of people you'd want to work with. Did you get to work with anybody you were excited about on the album, too?

Definitely, um, Mick Mars, the the guitarist from Mötley Crüe. James Michael and DJ Ashba. James has written stuff for Mötley as well as, uh, the Scorpions and the singer, the the lead singer for the band Six, uh, 6AM with Nikki Sixx and DJ Ashba. And Marty Frederickson, I got to write with, who has most notably worked with Aerosmith and Carrie Underwood and Buckcherry and and, you know, the list goes on and on.

Maybe someday I'll take them all, but I miss you.

Yeah, I still miss you.

Tell me about "Memories of a Beautiful Disaster." Do you have a favorite song?

I think if I had to pick a favorite song, uh, it's it's a track called "Right Behind You." And, uh, we just teamed up with the US Army. And they took the song and they put it into, uh, little USB drives, uh, and put them on wristbands and sent them out to the troops. I'm I'm really focusing on giving the fans what they want, you know, I wanted to make an album that's more accessible. I took things that I love from from metal, the soaring vocals and the, you know, the the heavy licks and the guitar solos, and I put it into this and hopefully someone who's a big fan of that or a fan of any genre will find something that they enjoy in "Memories of a Beautiful Disaster."

Love me bad.

Love me bad again.

Tell me about the video shoot for "Love Me Bad." I heard it was super fun.

Couldn't think of anything better than to go out there, drive an old car around and then, uh, light a bunch of stuff on fire. I got to drive the car around and I drove it so hard and so fast that the engine blew up, and the hood was on fire and it was smoking. So that was pretty funny. And, uh, we because we still had more shots to do, so they got a flatbed, I sat in the car, pretended to steer it, being pulled behind the U-Haul.

Love me bad.

Yeah, love me bad again.

I have to congratulate you. You're about to get married.

I am, end of the year.

And you said you're going to keep the wedding small, you're not going to go Kardashian status?

No, I I think I think when it gets too big and too crazy, it takes away the focus off of the couple that's getting married. Right. We have, um, tattoos that go together. I I encouraged her to get her first tattoo.

Oh, cool.

And, uh, mine says, "Forever Yours," and hers says, "Faithfully." So, the journey song. So we're going to get our tattoos done on the cake.

Yeah. But in the middle of the night when I feel you by my side, it's nothing but a memory.

Your first job and your last job before Idol.

I had to fill orders and box up knock-off, uh, designer purses.

Oh my god, that's awesome. I probably have had packages arrive at my house multiple times from you.

Probably.

And, um, what about your last job before Idol?

Last job I was delivering pizzas for Domino's and I got laid off two days before the audition.

Heck yeah. God works in mysterious ways, huh?

Exactly.

I have to ask you some Twitter questions because you've got some very excited and aggressive fans on the internet. @SuzyTaylorW wants to know, do you still stay in touch with Steven Tyler?

I try to. Yeah. We have the same attorney.

That's awesome.

I was at the finale. And, uh, Steven corners me and gets in my face. He grabs me by the collar, says, "Listen man, if you don't pick her as your attorney, it's going to be the biggest freaking mistake you've ever made." And I'm like, "All right, man, just let go of me, you crazy guy." And then he and then he grabs me and he kisses me on the cheek and slaps my face. And it's it's just classic Steven Tyler.

You haven't washed your face since that day, I heard.

No.

Love me bad.

@LisaDavis46, how much input did you have on "Memories of a Beautiful Disaster?"

Just as much as anyone. It's not something I recorded while I was on American Idol where I'm, you know, listening to someone else. It's like, this is me. This is my chance to shine. And I got to take the direction and arrange the songs and and and and make it how I wanted to.

Durbin Derb wants three words of advice for your fans.

I I guess you can you can get this from anywhere, but it's it's really where I started. Where where things actually started to happen for me, wasn't until I started believing in myself.

Oh, that's a great one. Believe in yourself, Durbin Derb. You heard it here first on Young Hollywood.