James Durbin joined Chasta to talk about his time on American Idol, a “Beatlemania” experience, and more ahead of his performance at The Blue Lagoon in Santa Cruz on Friday, July 7th.

Originally from Santa Cruz, Durbin finished in fourth place on the tenth season of American Idol in 2011. The guitarist was also the lead singer for the heavy metal band Quiet Riot from 2017 to 2019. Durbin says has done about “Anything you can imagine” thanks to having his wife by his side.

Discussing his time on American Idol, he explained,

“Exiting from that boiler room that was American Idol and I love all my experiences from it don’t get me wrong at all, but it can change you and it definitely changed me….so if I met myself from then I probably would have punched myself in the face.”

“Get it together, buddy. This ain’t it, This ain’t all there is, this ain’t real…calm down, take a couple rings off. You’re not Johnny Depp. Let’s remove some bracelets and some necklaces. As much as you’d like to look like Johnny Depp it’s not happening,” he continued.

Although Durbin admits there are some things he’d like the internet to forget, being a part of American Idol is “not one of them.”

Following his time on the hit television show, Durbin tells Chasta about “The second most Beatlemania” experience he had with Chris Jericho. Watch the complete interview to hear the full story here.

Bay Area fans can join Durbin for a night of heavy metal with special guests State Line Empire, Phantom Witch & Warcorpse, for more information click here.