Back when Clay Aiken became a household name on “American Idol” in 2003, texting was just taking off, and smartphones were still a rarity.
But more than two decades after the crooner became runner-up to season two winner Ruben Studdard, they’d be lost without being able to text all the time and check in with their “American Idol” group chat — a talented collection of alums that would make any diehard fan of the show swoon.
Clay Aiken Says It’s Like No Time Has Passed When He Reconnects With ‘American Idol’ Peers
Appearing on a June 2026 episode of the “Classic Conversations” podcast with Jeff Dwoskin, Aiken revealed that many of his peers from the second season are part of a group chat with text threads miles long.
He told Dwoskin, “We stay in touch. I mean, I don’t see how anybody could go through that experience and not be very good friends with people who they did it with. Our whole season is connected.”
“We don’t stay in touch as much as we used to, but it’s 23 years on,” Aiken continued, “and we still have a thread that we can all pop into and check in with each other, and wish happy birthday and whatnot.”
Dwoskin supposed that the text thread likely “lit up” over Aiken’s successful new single “Rewind” — his first new pop single in 18 years — and he replied, “Oh, quite a few people hit me up. We kind of, mostly, don’t talk business, frankly. You know, we do birthdays, we see how people’s families are doing. You know, we check in when somebody’s got a milestone or something.”
“The only time we ever talk business is back when I was touring,” Aiken noted, recalling how multiple season two alums attended his long-running concert tour with Reuben, who’s now performing regularly with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.
Aiken recalled alums Julia DeMato, Charles Grigsby, Carmen Rasumsen, and Vanessa Olivarez attending their shows and revealed, “That’s the only time we really talk business. And then once we see each other, we don’t talk business again. We sit down and talk crap about, ‘Oh, remember such and such?’ You know, they’re those friends who you can get together with, and talk to, and it’s like nothing … like it hadn’t been 23 years.”
Aiken also got to connect with a star-studded group of alums to tape an episode of “Celebrity Family Feud” scheduled to air later this summer. The lineup includes Studdard as well as season 18 winner Maddie Poppe, season 22 winner Abi Carter, and season 23 winner Jamal Roberts.
Taylor Hicks Also Regularly Texts ‘American Idol’ Alums From His Season
DisneyAiken and Reuben aren’t the only ones texting the alums from their “American Idol” season. Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks told EntertainmentNow this spring that he, too, keeps in touch with alums from his season.
“I keep in touch with Katherine (McPhee) a little bit and Chris Daughtry, Elliot (Yamin),” he said. “I’m really close to Kellie Pickler. There’s, you know, five or six of us that we all kind of keep in touch with over the years — we keep up with our texts.”
“You know, it truly changed our lives,” Hicks continued. “And you know, when you go through something like that with somebody, especially fame to a certain degree, you always, now that we’re 20-something years in, you look back on it, and you’re very fond of the people that happened to you with.”
In early May, Hicks reunited with several of his season five peers — Yamin, Pickler, Paris Bennett, and Bucky Covington — for a 20th reunion on the show. Each alum sang a duet with a member of season 24’s Top 5 and also got to reconnect with original judge Paula Abdul.
