What swing voters think of the war in Iran

11:27David Archuleta:Well, most of these swing voters tend to vote on personality, and they take each race one by one and look at it based upon the virtues and the drawbacks of each candidate.

11:36Radin Yad:Thank you very much for your time. Rich Tao ran a focus group for Michigan Swing Voters. His firm engages, holds focus groups for the Swing Voter Project. Thank you so much. Nice to talk to you.

11:48David Archuleta:Same here. Thank you.

11:56Radin Yad:Coming up, 2000's pop star David Archuleta opens up about losing his faith to find freedom. His conversation with Indira Lakshmanan is right after the break. Stay with us.

12:13Radin Yad:Take yourself back to 2008 when American Idol was starting its seventh season. The reality singing contest was the biggest show on television, spawning massive pop stars like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson. Each season starts with auditions when contestants sing before judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, who determine who will go on to the next round. One of the contestants that year was a shy teenager from Murray, Utah named David Archuleta. All right, so let's do it.

12:44David Archuleta:What you going to sing, ma 'am? I'm going to sing Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer. Go for it. Me and my friends were all misunderstood. They say we stand for nothing and there's no way we ever could.

12:59Radin Yad:He stumbles over the words a bit and then something extraordinary happens. Randy Jackson starts singing along.

13:06David Archuleta:Just feel like we don't have the means to rise above and beat it. So we keep waiting. Waiting. Waiting on the world to change. We keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change. It's hard to be persistent when we're standing at a distance. We keep waiting, waiting on the world to change. Thank you.

13:33Radin Yad:Archuleta got the green light from all three judges and made it all the way to finals, finishing in second place. He was adored by fans, but underneath, the teen was struggling with his identity and his connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. David Archuleta is 35 now, and he's out with a new memoir called Devout, Losing My Faith to Find Myself. David, welcome to Here and Now.

13:57David Archuleta:Thank you, Indira. Good to be here.

13:58Radin Yad:So you were just a kid when you rose to fame on American Idol almost 20 years ago. What is it like to hear yourself again as a young teenager? What feelings and memories does that bring up?

14:09David Archuleta:It brings a lot of nostalgia and it's a bit surreal. I feel like I get to live the moment a little more now than I did back then. It's interesting, but it's fun to hear Randy singing along to my audition.

14:23Radin Yad:Well, you ended up finishing in second place that season. and during the finale, you performed the hit song Apologize with the band One Republic. Let's listen.

14:31David Archuleta:It's too late to apologize. It's too late. I said it's too late to apologize. It's too late.

14:55Radin Yad:You look and sound so poised and polished in that performance, but we learn now from your memoir that you were struggling inside. You were raised in the Mormon church, which forbids same-sex relationships, but you write in your memoir that the first time you had feelings for a boy was as early as the second grade. So how were you dealing behind the scenes with those feelings while at the same time being catapulted into the national, even global spotlight at such a young age?

15:25David Archuleta:I had a hard time because I was a very shy kid and I was homeschooled a lot of my life. And how I had adjusted and adapted to survive up until then was to just blend in and hide and not say anything. So I was known as the smiley kid who never talked in school. and then to suddenly be thrown in front of everybody, I was like, wait, I'm used to hiding it and blending in and making sure no one sees me to then being, I can't hide anymore. But I think I did my best to just let my voice do the work and tried to not be seen after that. But it was kind of hard to do that because then everyone was like, you're a teenage pop star and all the girls love you.

16:08David Archuleta:And I was just like, oh my gosh. But it was exciting and terrifying and thrilling all at once.

16:16Radin Yad:And a lot of pressure on you. You know, you were still a teen. You didn't come out publicly as gay until many, many years later in 2021. By that time, you had already gained, perhaps coincidentally, a huge LGBTQ plus following over your eight studio albums. And all along, you were going to the church. Five people in your own congregation wrote to you and shared that they were queer too. What did it mean to you to find out that there were other Mormons like you?

16:47David Archuleta:Yeah. Well, I came out like on the spectrum of bisexual, but mostly attracted to men. And when I did come out publicly, I was surprised at how many people in my own congregation were going through the same thing that I was. And it wasn't just people my age. It was people who are older. It was people who are younger than me. and that I just never would have thought were going through what I had gone through, and they would just say, thank you. They're like, it is so hard to try and live this way without being able to really share who I really am. So I was pretty surprised by that.

17:25Radin Yad:Of course, that public face of you coming out and saying you were bisexual, but leaning on the spectrum towards men, And, you know, that elides a huge period of time during which you were struggling within the church. You tried to talk to church elders about your sexuality and the church's views on same-sex relationships. Tell us how those conversations went.

17:47David Archuleta:Yeah, I became really close with the church leaders after American Idol because they looked at me as like a hero and a poster boy in a way. and when I shared with them finally that hey I think I might be gay or I might be I am attracted to men they got really uncomfortable and one in specific who was like my grandpa I sang at his wife's funeral and was invited to family dinners he got really uncomfortable until I kind of just said I don't need you to fix my problem I just want you to listen to my experience and he softened up so much. And he's eventually said, you know, I never spoken to someone who is gay this in depth before.

18:30David Archuleta:And so I, from my understanding, as soon as he spoke to the other brethren, the other world leaders, they just said, don't talk to him anymore. What he's saying is wrong. And I was told that I, that, that elder, I mean, basically needed to be protected from me, which I was like, I've, after all I've been through with him, like, I was just shocked by that and really disappointed.

18:52Radin Yad:You decided to leave the Mormon church and you told your mother, what was the quote your mother said back to you?

19:00David Archuleta:She said, I've decided to step away from the church. And I said, mom, you don't have to do that because I already knew how hard it is to step away from your, what was your everything. And she said, I don't want to be somewhere where my children don't feel loved and welcomed. And if you're going to hell, then we're all going to hell with you.

19:17Radin Yad:Now, that's an incredible and loving sentiment to want to keep the family together. And most of your siblings left the church, too. And that inspired your 2024 song, Hell Together. Let's listen to some of that now.

19:55Radin Yad:You know, it is so much more meaningful to me to hear that song now knowing the story behind it. When I first heard it, it's just another pop song. But now knowing that you're singing to your mom and about your mom saying we're going to hell together, it's just it really has a very deep meaning. and I wonder how did it feel for you to finally show all of yourself in your songwriting?

20:20David Archuleta:It's like such a release because you've held something for so many decades all your life, thinking that there's something wrong with you and to finally have this awakening that there actually isn't something wrong with you and you can learn how to accept yourself. It's taken me time and it's still taking me time to accept when I always believed I was supposed to reject and despise myself. And I was really good at doing that. I was good at it. It's liberating, and it's freeing, and it's like living, having a second chance at living again.

20:54Radin Yad:It's striking to me that you've described this journey as losing your faith to find yourself. And I'm thinking about how you thought about writing a memoir right after you came out publicly, but it took you five years to do this memoir. How did writing the book help you in the process of fully accepting yourself? And what do you want people who read the book to take away from it?

21:19David Archuleta:I just hope that anyone, whether it's coming out as queer or transitioning out of religion or out of a family dynamic that could be harmful, that they are encouraged to take the courage to be their authentic selves and to free them from any people-pleasing, trying to let external factors decide for them what they feel is where they should go in their life. And I was a people-pleaser. A lot of my problems and challenges in my book were from giving my agency and freedom away to other people to decide for me. And I had to learn how to, rather than be devout to other external factors, to be devout with to what was within in my soul.

22:06David Archuleta:And that's when I found the most growth and the most freedom and the most confidence in myself. And that's what I hope other people can take away. And if nothing else, just to find some understanding for others around them. That's my really greatest plea, too.

22:23Radin Yad:David Archuleta is a singer-songwriter who first graced our screens as a contestant on American Idol. He's since released nine studio albums. His latest is called Earthly Delights, and he's out with his new memoir, Devout, Losing My Faith to Find Myself. David Archuleta, thank you so much.

22:40David Archuleta:Thank you, Indira.

22:42Radin Yad:And to take us back, let's go out on your hit single, Crush, which many people will remember hearing on the radio back in the summer of 2008.

23:02Radin Yad:Here and Now Anytime comes from NPR and WBUR Boston. Today's stories were produced by Lynn Mennegon, Jill Ryan, and Sam Rafelson. Today's editors were Micaela Rodriguez, Michael Scotto, and Kat Welch. Technical direction from Caleb Green and James Trout. Our theme music is by Mike Moschetto, Max Liebman, and Chris Bentley. Our digital producers are Alison Hagen and Grace Griffin, and the executive producer of Here and Now is Alan Price. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.