Clay Aiken: A new measure

A Nicolas Cage adventure flick plays on the pair of flat-screen televisions in the lounge of Clay Aiken's tour bus. No one watches. This Monday afternoon, on a stretch of highway between New York and Boston, four of the five people aboard count sheep instead of mileposts.

Aiken, his bodyguard and his tour manager are sacked out in the back. A reporter along for the ride naps up front with the singer's dog, a border terrier named Raleigh, snoozing in his lap. Only Sarge, the all-business man at the wheel, remains alert, talking endlessly on a cell phone as he steers the bus to its next stop.

Raleigh's most famous pop star is tired. Tired of living in Los Angeles, a city full of suck-ups. Tired of having other people make decisions for him. And, at the moment, tired from having stayed out all night at a nightclub.

After Boston come Rhode Island, Tennessee and Florida, then Raleigh for Thursday's show at the RBC Center. A few more dates on his "Joyful Noise" tour, a few more weeks waiting for his new house in the Triangle to be completed, then Aiken heads home for good.

He's taking charge of his life and career, and one of his major decisions is to return to North Carolina. It's where he belongs.

Aiken started his journey as an "American Idol" wannabe, equipped with a booming voice that belies his lanky frame. He lost in the show's final sing-off in 2003, but the zealous fans he won assured the kind of success that makes you think of a latter-day Tom Jones without the innuendo.

All of it -- the record contract, the money, the panty-tossing fans -- could have gone to his head. Instead, as two days on the road with him reveal, the Clay Aiken who left North Carolina three years ago as a purposeful young man on a mission has returned that same man, only with better hair and more mettle.

On the road

Backstage at New York's Beacon Theatre, backup singers Angela Fisher and Quiana Parler are bugging Aiken about going to an open-mike performance at a club after the show. In the last couple of years, he has only hit the town with them once, in Charleston, S.C., two summers ago.

He leans against the door jamb of their dressing room,

"Do you know what time we have to be at CBS? 5:30!" Aiken asks and answers before adjourning to his own dressing room for makeup and a pre-show drink of white milk.

Sometimes, Aiken has a hard time saying no. Tonight, he'll go out with the singers.

Far from home

After "American Idol," everything happened so fast that it was hard to keep up with the changes, much less control them.

Aiken moved to California, far from his home turf, and bought a a 7,800-square-foot mansion. That's what new celebrities do. Los Angeles is the be-seen capital of the universe, as anyone who reads People magazine knows. Stars need to be there to take meetings and walk the red carpets.

But since the first time he had the chance, Aiken has spoken on TV and in magazine interviews about his hometown, about singing in church and working at the YMCA. He has said enough good things about the area that people have moved to the Triangle because of his praise. Others come to his hometown concerts and make a pilgrimage to important life spots.

The decision to sell his California house and move back was easy.

"I want a home base," he says during a long backstage interview before the Boston show. "I'm tired of people asking me where I'm from and having to say 'L.A.' or saying 'North Carolina, but I don't live there anymore.'

"When people ask me where I'm from, I want to say 'I'm from Raleigh, and I live there.' And mean it."