Entertainment

Let's start with the hair.

Because really, that's all the nation knows about Jason Castro, the 20-year-old dreadlocked, blue-eyed Rockwall resident who has earned a spot in American Idol's top 24. He'll share the stage Tuesday night with 11 other guys, including Grand Prairie's Jason Yeager.

Due to both men's mere seconds of screen time so far, viewers have nothing to go on but their looks. This has led Mr. Castro's fans to settle on a nickname for themselves: Dreadheads.

So how much upkeep is involved in a style like that?

"Virtually zero," says Mr. Castro, phoning in from Los Angeles last week. "Every morning I just wake up and look the same.

"I do wash it," he adds with a laugh. "It's still hair – it'll still stink."

The low-maintenance approach to life suits his singing style, which he describes as "kind of an extension of my personality: real easygoing."

Sadly, viewers haven't had the chance to hear a single note.

"It's kind of frustrating," he admits. "Everybody's getting to know people, to like people, so it's kind of a disadvantage at first."

But at least in Mr. Castro's case, there's a reason for his screen absence: The song he chose in his original audition and in Hollywood wasn't granted clearance to be used on the show. Idol's executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, in a phone interview last week, recalled the controversy.

The song was "Crazy," by Gnarls Barkley, which is owned by three entities, Mr. Lythgoe says. Because one of the three said no, Mr. Castro's airtime was shot.

"It was one of the best performances we've ever had, and we couldn't show anyone," the producer says.

After his first Hollywood audition, Mr. Castro recalls, "Simon said it was in his top five performances, so that was great feedback." But there were also setbacks; on the last day "something happened, and the song ended up a disaster. So I had an outstanding day and then a train-wreck day."

Others who suffered a similar fate got lots of airtime (you know their names), but Mr. Castro says he didn't try to make a spectacle of himself.

"I'm kind of camera-shy," he says. "People said, 'Look like you're happy or something!' But I was always freaked out, so in front of the camera I looked anti-social."

His friends say he's anything but. The singer, who grew up in Rowlett before the family moved to Rockwall, has performed regularly at Lake Pointe Church and counts the congregation among his biggest supporters.

"He's one of the most humble individuals you're going to meet," says former manager Eddie Head, who says Mr. Castro's appeal comes from "a pleasant, organic quality to his performance."

Mr. Head also managed the singer Cheyenne in 2006, during her days as an MTV reality-show star. Mr. Castro was featured on the show and says their romantic moments were accurate: "We kind of, I guess, dated," he says now.

Which brings up a question that will surely arise among the Dreadheads: Is he single?

"There's a girl I'm interested in, but we're not dating," he says. "I really can't date at the moment."

Around the same time he was flirting with MTV fame, Mr. Castro played drums for the rock bands Charlemagne and Keeping Lions. But he wasn't a singing drummer; he didn't start showing off his vocal prowess until less than a year ago.

Mr. Head, who was the manager of Mr. Castro's bands, recalls asking him whether he could sing at all.

"He said, 'Yeah, I can sing a little bit,' " he recalls. "He sounded really great, actually. I encouraged him to pick up the guitar and do some songwriting, and he really embraced it."

Mr. Castro is aware that his experience is vastly different from most of the others in the top 24, but he hopes it gives him an edge. "I think coming into singing later in life gave me more of a natural voice," he says. But it's also nerve-racking. Before his first Idol tryout, "I'd performed in public, like, five times," he says with a laugh. "Now I was going to do an a cappella audition."

That audition steered him away from continuing at Texas A&M, where he's a junior. "It was kind of a tough decision for me," he says of delaying his college education. "But I went on faith, and look at me now."

He also went at the urging of his family, who are all big Idol fans. "I never voted – I wasn't that into it – but my family voted every week."

He says he's more excited than nervous about tonight's song, which is part of '60s Week. "It's gonna be great," he says of his choice. "It'll be good for the first performance, since nobody's seen me yet."

AMERICAN IDOL
7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, Fox (Channel 4). 2 hrs. Tuesday night (male singers), 2 hrs. Wednesday (female) and 1 hr. Thursday (results).

COMING NEXT WEEK
Our other hometown fave, Grand Prairie's Jason Yeager, talks about his Idol past (yes, he tried out once before) and what made him give the show another shot.