Though he had played a full-band concert in Nashville just a month ago, Kris Allen returned to The Cannery Friday night for a flood-relief concert sponsored by new Top 40 station i106.

“It’s always really nice to do something that helps out a really good cause,” Kris said before the show, which featured him and Cale Mills on acoustic guitars. Kris worked in the benefit between shows in Los Angeles on Friday and San Diego on Saturday.

“I remember seeing pictures of tall building with the first story completely underwater,” Kris says about his impressions of the flood that covered much of Nashville on the first weekend in May. “Being a musician, I remember hearing a lot about people’s musical gear. You hear a lot about Keith Urban’s stuff — a lot of his guitars were just gone. I know it was really, devastating, hearing from a lot of people who were here.”

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Last Thursday night, July 15th, Train frontman Pat Monahan and Kris Allen met up in the desert, but it was nothing shady.  They were there to shoot a new video.  What’s the connection? Well, Kris’ new single “The Truth” was written by Pat, and since the song was recently remixed as a duet featuring both men, Pat is included in the video.  Pat managed to finish his scenes before a rainstorm — yeah, a rainstorm in the desert, go figure — forced them to shut down filming.  Kris will complete the video shoot on Monday.  On Twitter, Pat posted a photo of them together on the set, along with a note saying, “Great dude!  Great singer!  Great time!  Thanks for including me!”

Pat told us that he had originally written “The Truth” for Train’s album Save Me San Francisco, but it didn’t quite go with the rest of the songs.  He says, “When Kris and his people heard the song, they were like, ‘Man, if you don’t mind, we’d like to use this one.’ It wasn’t that it wasn’t good enough for our record, it just didn’t fit the record we were making.”  And even though Pat takes a shot at American Idol in the lyrics of Train’s new single “If It’s Love,” he says he thinks the world of Kris and his performance on the track.  He said, “Great voice, man, he sang it so great!  I was super-impressed with it!” Train is currently on tour with John Mayer.

Source: WLPJ

Something tells me “American Idol” season 8 winner Kris Allen hated posing for a Tribune photo shoot more than anything on Friday. Maybe it was the bored expression on his face during the shoot in the John Hancock building — or maybe it was the fact that he said “I hate this more than anything.”

Either way, it looked like the “Live Like We’re Dying” singer was dying for the photo shoot to end.

“I like interviews more than photos,” admitted Allen before playing a free outdoor show in the John Hancock Center Plaza. “In an interview, you just talk.”

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American Idol season 8 winner Kris Allen is in town for a performance tonight at 7:40 p.m. as part of the Old St. Pat’s World’s Largest Block Party (other performers this weekend include Barenaked Ladies tonight and White Rabbit and Spoon tomorrow night). But prior to that, Allen hit up the plaza outside the John Hancock tower for an afternoon performance for a throng of fans who sweated and swooned for the crooner and Tony was there.

Source: Chicagoist.com

View photos at the gallery here.

Today, the United Nations Foundation announced that “American Idol” viewers, with the help of Season 8 Winner Kris Allen, raised over $250,000 for the people of Haiti.

During the Top 24 results show on February 25th, “Idol” aired footage of Kris’ trip to the earthquake ravaged country and Kris performed The Beatles’ “Let It Be.” The performance was then put on iTunes and all proceeds went to the UN’s recovery efforts. The money raised will be used to purchase energy efficient street lights and pregnancy health kits that will help thousands of Haitian women and young girls who reside in temporary camps.

“Throughout my entire life, I have volunteered as much time as possible to help those in need,” said Allen. “Getting involved with the UN’s relief efforts in Haiti gave me a chance to give back on a large scale. I can’t thank my fans enough for supporting such a worthy cause.”

Source: ainow.org

Sometimes having the hometown advantage pays off. This weekend, it did for Heifer.

Sunday morning, Kris Allen and his dad Neil stopped by Heifer International’s headquarters in Little Rock, AR, for a quiet visit with a couple of staff members. We gave him the large card (12″ X 18″) full of the well-wishes of generous fans who gave to Heifer in honor of Kris’s birthday.

Kris examined the card thoroughly, perusing the names inside. After a few minutes, he turned it over and in surprise said, “Woah. There are names on the back, too!” Yep, nearly 500 in all, I confirmed. And donations to the tune of over $26,000. The fans have spoken!

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When shirtless vacation photos of Kris Allen recently landed him on the pages of JustJared.Com (and later TMZ), the modest “American Idol” season-eight winner was baffled that people would want to see what was hiding underneath his plaid shirts.

“I was pretty upset. It was like, ‘Seriously?’ ” a visibly embarrassed Allen told MTV News during a recent New York tour stop.

The revealing pics were snapped in April when Kris and his band were hanging out at the pool before a Paradise Island gig in the Bahamas. “I knew it was probably going to happen. We’re in Atlantis, which is not the most secret place in the world. And we were trying to have a good time. People weren’t bothering us, but apparently they were taking sneaky pictures and selling them to the tabloids,” Allen said before joking, “I don’t know what they got off them, but I would like a cut.”

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Once Lee DeWyze took home the “American Idol” crown this past season, Kris Allen was no longer the reigning ruler of the “Idol” kingdom — and he’s completely fine with that.

“It really hasn’t crossed my mind at all [about what sorts of pressures I'm feeling now]. Maybe this is more of a product of being on my own tour and all that stuff that I feel like it’s a little bit separate now from ‘American Idol,’ which is a good thing,” he told MTV News during a recent chat.

But don’t think Allen doesn’t have gratitude for the show that made him a household name. “Obviously, I owe a lot to the show, but the people who have made it successfully off the show have to separate themselves,” he explained. “So I think that’s happening, and that’s a good thing, and now Lee has taken the reins.”

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A little more than a year ago, Kris Allen was just a regular guy from Arkansas but all of that changed in May of 2009, when he was crowned the season 8 winner of American Idol. He went on to release two successful singles – first, “Live Like We’re Dying” and most recently, “The Truth”. Now, he’s out on the road, playing packed venues around the country and opening up for artists such as Barenaked Ladies and Keith Urban. We caught up with Kris today in an exclusive interview about his music, his tour, and life after Idol.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What were your expectations after winning American Idol? Did your journey afterwards match up with what you were expecting?
A. Kris: I don’t know what I was expecting. I’m one of those people that doesn’t expect a whole lot. It’s exceeded all expectations. When you come off the show, you’re really busy afterwards. You do too many interviews and then you’re on the road with the Idol tour and you’re making an album at the same time. All that time was pretty crazy until the wintertime of last year. We put the band together and started going on the road a little bit and that felt like the most right. That’s been great. When the first single came out, it exceeded all my expectations.

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