Idol Contestant Loses His Golden Ticket

The audition shows are over, and the contestants for American Idol are going to Hollywood. Well, everyone except Dallas contestant Akron Watson. You may remember him as the guy who sang Sam Cooke's "Change is Gonna Come" on Tuesday's episode.

Yesterday, reports emerged that he was told three months by Idol producers that he was no longer invited to participate in the competition. What gives? The 23-year-old singer says back in November, two days before he was to leave for Los Angeles, he got a phone call telling him not to come. "From that point I asked why?" Watson tells People magazine. "(The producer) said he didn't have a reason. He didn't know why. He said that his bosses don't divulge that information to him."

TMZ.com reported yesterday that a pesky prior misdemeanor possession of marijuana charge three years ago is what got him ousted from the competition, based on a story in local Dallas-Fort Worth newspaper Pegasus News. But Watson says that he told the Idol producers about his past. "I was completely open about my background, any trouble I had been in, my medical history – everything!" he tells PEOPLE. "They ask all that information before you audition."

Watson is now a full-time student at Collin County Community College in Texas and has created his own MySpace page to get support for his story, including a petition to get him another shot at Hollywood.

"I earned my way in, and you knew about my background, I have no clue why you wouldn't let me go and perform," insists Watson. "It seems like I deserve that opportunity. I still want to know why it is I've been cut. And I still want the opportunity to be on American Idol."

Photo from People.