American Idol judge Randy Jackson spoke to Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt yesterday to discuss a plethora of issues and predictions for this season’s version of the show. During the conversation, Chris Daughtry’s comments about the show’s decline came up, and Jackson defended the program’s credibility. “I love Chris. I think he made an amazing record that he sold extremely well,” Jackson said. “He’s a testament to the fact that no matter where you finish on Idol—even if you finish twelfth—if you make a great record and you got that kind of exposure, the public will resoundingly buy it. But the bottom line is there would be no Chris Daughtry if there wasn’t American Idol.”

Jackson also talked about how the show remains the best option for many young performers. “I did A&R at record companies for fifteen years. No company was out looking for these kids. I’m sure you can ask any of the winners or the runners-up: were you trying to get a record deal before American Idol? I’m sure they will all say ‘Yes.’ Were you successful? I’m sure they’ll all say ‘No.’ So now we’ve got all these people, and guess what brought them here? The quickest rocket ship to the top.”

For a guide to those winners, runners-up and biggest losers and their post-Idol careers, click here.

[Photo: Fox]

As you may have read Monday, Chris Daughtry described American Idol as in a state of “decline” on RollingStone.com. Since then, a producer for the show told Rolling Stone Daughtry called to apologize and said that he was “misquoted or taken out of context.” We think Daughtry is a great guy and understand that he put himself in a tough position, but we also need to set the record straight. Here’s the interview transcript and audio from our phone conversation. (more…)

On the eve of the premiere of the seventh season of American Idol, one of the show’s most famous losers, Chris Daughtry, says that the Idol franchise is starting to lose its luster. “I feel like it’s definitely lacking some credibility at this point,” says Daughtry, who came in fourth place on the 2006 season but went on to sell 3.6 million copies of his debut record and be named one of Nielsen’s top ten selling artists of 2007. “It’s in a state of decline and if they don’t do something about it, it’s probably not gonna last too much longer. I’m sure that’ll be used against me, but that’s the truth, you know?” (more…)