Corey Clark

The multiracial Nature of the Clarks’ relationship and of Corey's heritage was a source of racial conflict for the family during the Clarks' early years in Lufkin, Texas, where Corey recalls a story his parents told him about; a December 1979 incident in which the couple were driving to church for a Christmas event, with Duane dressed as Santa Claus, when they were pulled over by a white police officer, who smashed one of the car's tail lights, and told Duane he was being pulled over and arrested for driving with a broken tail light.

Less subtle was the racism at school, where Clark says he and his sister got into fights with schoolmates in the first grade who called them "niggers" and "cottonheads".

Adding to his sense of identity confusion was the fact that African Americans did not accept him either, and called him and his sister "wiggers", on which Clark comments, "It's real unsettling when you’re young and don't know which group you belong to."

Today, Clark reflects on his multiethnic heritage with pride, and says he wishes more people were open-minded about interracial dating, saying, "Our family could claim to be the ultimate melting pot," and that being of so many different ethnicities gave him the ability to "adapt to any situation".

Clark's interest in music was stimulated at an early age; his first clear memory was of his parents, his aunt Audrey, and his father's band recording a demo tape in a Denver studio.

Having attended concerts by Boyz II Men, TLC and Montell Jordan, he himself began singing at age 11, without any formal training, at school functions and concerts.

Clark received his first professional singing job when he was 13, when Debbie Byrd, a family friend and vocal coach who would later go on to work on American Idol, recruited him and his parents to be among the backup singers for Barry Manilow during a week-long appearance in Las Vegas.

Although Manilow was not a favorite of Clark's, he realized his dream during this engagement, saying, When the curtain went up the first night, I was floored by the response from the sell-out crowd.

I’d never been on stage as a professional singer before, and I got to see someone at the peak of his career working the stage and the audience.

Every night he made his performance feel fresh, not just going through the motions.

Experiencing the energy of a live show wasn't at all like listening to a tape or a CD, I realized.

It was magical.

I was hooked!

At age 14, Clark started and performed as the lead vocalist in an R&B vocal group called Envy.

The group also included the now-Grammy Award-winning singer Ne-Yo, Solomon Ridge and Ray Blaylock.

Envy performed in several talent contests, and a few years later, won the grand prize at a Las Vegas amateur singing contest.

Envy also opened major shows for major artists such as Mýa and Destiny's Child, and performed during Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.

Corey Delaney Clark (born July 13, 1980) is an American singer.

He is known for his highly publicized disqualification from the second season of American Idol and later allegations of a sexual relationship with then-Idol judge Paula Abdul.

He is the older brother of WNBA player Alysha Clark.

Corey Clark was born July 13, 1980, in San Bernardino, California, to Duane and Jan Clark, two singers who met on the road in Nashville, Tennessee in early 1978 while following their own musical aspirations.

Duane, an R&B and disco singer who sang in San Bernardino nightclubs and opened for Al Wilson and B. B. King and recorded and performed with the James Last Orchestra and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, is of African American, Cherokee, Apache, and Blackfoot descent.

Jan Clark, the Hungarian-Ukrainian, Jewish, Irish, French, Cherokee, and Algonquian great granddaughter of a Budapest concert pianist, met Duane in Nashville while she worked in nightclubs specializing in R&B and Barbra Streisand.

The group signed a recording deal in 2000, but nothing came of it, and it disbanded after eight years of performances.

Clark and his family moved to Nashville, and while working as a stage hand in 2002, Clark auditioned for the reality television music competition show American Idol; he has been described as "one of the most impressive top ten finalists of the talent search's second season".

Clark names making it to the top 32 finalists during that season to be his proudest moment.

During the American Idol competition, The Smoking Gun revealed that Clark had been arrested at his Topeka, Kansas home on October 12, 2002, after neighbors called police after hearing a commotion within the residence, including a girl yelling.

Police arrived and questioned Clark and his 15-year-old sister Alysha, after which Clark became confrontational with the officers.

Clark alleges police misconduct in handling the matter, asserting that he was beaten by the officers, who ultimately wrestled Clark to the pavement and handcuffed him behind his back.

After managing to get his handcuffed hands in front of him in the squad car, he was shown a taser and warned he would be shot with it if he continued to resist, at which point he relented.

He was charged with misdemeanor battery on four police officers and his sister, and endangering the welfare of a child.

However both Clark and his sister Alysha have denied that he ever hit her, and Alysha echoed her brother's account of the way the situation transpired.

On December 4, days after Clark became one of the final 32 American Idol contestants, he was charged in Kansas District Court with resisting arrest, battery upon his sister, and criminal restraint.

Clark ultimately pleaded "no contest" to "obstructing legal process" through a plea agreement, and was sentenced to six months unsupervised probation and ordered to pay $116.00 USD in legal costs.

Clark states in his book, "Initially no charges were filed against me, and I was refunded my $116.00 USD bond money after attending a November 11, 2002 court hearing back in Topeka."

That December, after Clark had filled out his contracts for American Idol and was publicly named a semi-finalist on the show, the state district attorney elected to proceed with the case and filed charges against him.

According to American Idol's producers, Clark did not disclose his arrest record when joining the competition, although Clark maintains in his book American Paulatics that he spoke with them and with judge Paula Abdul about his legal troubles.

Producers also explained that the background checks conducted on all contestants did not uncover his arrest because of a misspelling of Clark's name in the police report.

Clark maintains that this could not be true, as all background checks are conducted via social security numbers, which Clark had provided to producers in his contract.

The producers disqualified Clark from further participation in the competition nine hours after the story broke.