David Roland Cook was born in Houston, Texas on December 20, 1982 and raised in Blue Springs, Missouri a suburb of Kansas City. His parents are Beth and Stan Cook. Cook's younger brother, Andrew, is an elementary education major at the University Of Central Missouri, and his older brother, Adam is married with children living in Terre Haute, Indiana. Cook's parents divorced when he was young but his mother remarried and now goes by Beth Foraker.
David’s love of music began “in the womb” he said in an interview on “Live with Regis & Kelly.” But seriously he has credited his music teacher in the second grade for encouraging him to sing in a school play. He said that he was not very social in school and that singing helped him in that area. He also participated in choir and drama programs in middle school and at Blue Springs South High School. David earned a theater scholarship to the University of Central Missouri, but he left theater after a couple semesters, graduating from the school in 2006 with a degree in graphic design.
While in Missouri he and a friend formed the band Axium where David was the lead singer and guitarist from 1999 until 2006. One of the band's songs, "Hold," was picked up by AMC Theaters and was played before movie previews on over 20,000 screens nationwide. Axium was also named one of the top 15 independent bands in the country in the "Got Milk" independent band contest, and it was chosen as the best band in Kansas City in 2004
Soon afterwards David moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma because he knew T-town “had a good music vibe”. He joined the regional touring band Midwest Kings, playing guitar, bass, and singing backup vocals. He recorded a record called “Incoherrent with Desire to Move On”, with the Kings in 2006. His life as a musician included bartending stints at a few local bars, including Blank Slate and Rehab Lounge which may be responsible for the angst and longing for better times that we hear in David’s voice past and present. David recorded a solo independent record “Analog Heart” which was released in 2007.
Cook auditioned for American Idol in Omaha, Nebraska performing Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.” David went to the auditions to support his brother Andrew with no intention of auditioning himself. A producer approached them in the pre-dawn rain and interviewed Andrew then turned the camera on David, interviewed him and even through his protests that he was not there to audition, the producer said, “well you are now.” For his first Hollywood audition, David performed “(Everything I Do) I Do it for You" by Bryan Adams, while playing his acoustic guitar. Later in the week he performed “I’ll Be" by Edwin McCain. This was the first year that American Idol had allowed the contestants to perform with instraments.
David started Season 7 as the resident rocker but claimed ‘dark horse’ status by Paula early on. Performing Lionel Ritchie’s "Hello" on week three drew rave reviews from the judges, who praised him for turning an R&B song into a post-grunge power ballad. We would see David repeat this formula throughout the competition including Chris Cornell’s version of "Billie Jean" a few weeks later. The finale came down to the 17 year old David Archuleta, who had been a front runner throughout the show and the 25 year old bartender from Tulsa. It was deemed the Battle of the Davids. On May 21, 2008 David Cook received a record breaking 56 percent of nearly 100 million votes and was crowned the winner. One week after his victory Cook rewrote chart history when 11 of his AI songs hit the Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, this was the highest number of new entries in a single week by an artist since the Beatles in 1964.
David Cook was signed by 19 Recordings/RCA Records and started writing and recording his first major label record during the American Idol summer tour. His self titled debut album was released in November of 2008 and was certified platinum three months later. In February 2009 Cook set off with his band on his Declaraion Tour, originally scheduled for 47 stops the artist has continued to add dates well into the fall of ’09.
