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Stacey vows ‘glory’ in exit, when it happens

Phil Stacey sang Tuesday night that he would go out in a blaze of glory, but if two out of the show’s three judges are any indication, it could take a few more weeks for that to happen as “American Idol” grinds its way along towards its finale.

Stacey, a musician third class with the Navy Band in Jacksonville, Fla., sang “Blaze of Glory,” by the week’s “celebrity coach,” Jon Bon Jovi, and judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul heaped the sailor with praise.

“I think other than country week this is your best performance on this show. That was the bomb,” said Jackson, who also said he produced Bon Jovi’s original version of the song for the “Young Guns” soundtrack. And Abdul said it was the best opening song so far this “Idol” season, making this Stacey’s third week of sterling reviews from at least the first two judges.

But sneermeister Simon Cowell wasn’t going along with it; in fact, he reiterated a grim pronouncement he hasn’t made for several weeks. “I didn’t hear any authenticity,” he said. “I thought you were like a bad actor playing a role, you know, this is how rock singers are supposed to be. I don’t think you’ve done enough to last till next week.”

And with that, having attended to the world’s crises on its two-hour telethon last week, “American Idol” got back to show business Tuesday with songs all by Bon Jovi, whose heart, reportedly, is like an open highway. Though best known as a performer, “American Idol” isn’t the first time Bon Jovi has coached musicians behind the scenes: his resume includes production work on 1980’s Star Wars holiday album, “Christmas In The Stars.” (He sings lead on the song “R2D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas”).

USA Today “Idol” blogger Don Waller, a self-described “rock snob,” was not encouraged by the choice for “Idol’s” rock adviser; he wrote Tuesday that Bon Jovi’s music “just bores the daylights out of me.” But Bon Jovi, a self-described “cowboy,” noted for the steel horse he rides, evidently was just what producers wanted, dead or alive.

He praised Stacey during their taped rehearsal segment: “He knocked this one out of the ballpark,” Bon Jovi said. And for his part, Stacey admitted that he’d been gearing up for a long time to perform “Blaze of Glory.”

“I was the kid who sang this song in front of the mirror with the comb in my hand. I’ve been singing this song for 15 years,” Stacey said.

Although viewer fickleness makes “Idol” handicapping a dicey proposition to begin with, prognosticators were doubly flummoxed by this week’s special system for eliminating candidates. Nobody was cut last week — “How could we let anybody go on a charity night?” said host Ryan Seacrest — meaning that the two lowest vote-getters would be eliminated Wednesday, instead of the single lowest. What’s more, Seacrest said, the low men or women would be determined after contestants’ April 24 votes were added to Tuesday’s votes.

But “Idol” doesn’t release the number of votes each candidate receives, meaning that there was no real way to tell who had an edge from last week and who had to cowboy or -girl up on Tuesday. They had to hold on to what they got, but at least they have each other, Bon Jovi said, which he called “a lot.”

Odds-makers’ favorites were Stacey and Chris Richardson, the show’s pocket-edition Justin Timberlake, according to the betting Web site Gambling911.com, although gamblers have picked Stacey to lose week after week, and that has garnered no payouts.

With the first of this week’s two “Idol” episodes behind him, the sailor is halfway there; until he finds out whether he’s been cut Wednesday at 9 p.m., he’s living on a prayer.