Former Superior man and his mother are unhappy with 'Idol' performance

Superior man unhappy with 'Idol' performace, so is his mother

BY WILL ASHENMACHER

NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

A former Superior man and his mother are steamed at "American Idol" for how his third-round performance was portrayed in Wednesday night's broadcast.

Steven Thoen, 28, said the Fox television show's producers were disrespectful and unfair to him. His mother, June Lorimor of Superior, said that the show took advantage of Thoen's mild mental retardation and made him a laughingstock.

Thoen's rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," was resoundingly panned by the show's panel of judges and next-day critics.

USA Today called it a "grisly, tuneless falsetto" and named it as one of the night's worst performances. Thoen and tart-tongued judge Simon Cowell also had a tiff when Cowell disparaged Thoen's performance. It was strictly a verbal altercation.

Lorimor said her son never should have made it as far as he did on the show.

"You could tell by looking at him there is something wrong with the kid," she said. " 'American Idol' ought to have their butts sued. How dare they."

She also contends Thoen was goaded into his confrontation with Cowell by the show's producers.

"The producers told him Simon was going to be really rough on him and don't take it," Lorimor said. "So he did as he was flippin' told."

The News Tribune attempted to get an official comment from Fox executives Thursday, but calls were not returned.

Thoen would not discuss whether he has a disability and denied that the producers told him to tussle with Cowell.

"I don't stage anything," Thoen said. "I'm all real. I come straight at you."

Thoen, who moved to Seattle after a three-year stint in the Navy, said his performance was affected by his feeling ill.

"I was under the weather but I wasn't going to pull out, so I said, 'Screw it. I'm just going to have fun,' " Thoen said.

Still, Thoen said his illness made it more difficult to sing. He said "Bohemian Rhapsody" was "out of his range" and he had difficulty hitting the song's high notes.

"Given the circumstances, I did the best I could," he said.

Thoen said "American Idol" producers were rude to him and his adopted city.

"I am so disappointed at how low they go to get ratings. They will go so low to humiliate people," he said. "I don't like the way 'American Idol' portrayed me. I was disrespected."

He said the show's organizers should "do themselves a favor and do Seattle a favor. Don't come back."

Seattle and Minneapolis were two of seven cities where auditions took place last summer.

Thoen grew up in Superior and went to Superior Senior High School, where he said he was in the choir and on the football team.

Lorimor didn't see her son's performance -- she was watching "Medium" -- but got comments from friends and family. She thinks her son may have embarrassed himself in front of millions of people.

"I had phone calls until midnight," she said. "I finally had to shut the phone off."

Thoen had called her with the news he had made it through the show's first two auditions.

The judges -- Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul -- laughed throughout Thoen's Wednesday performance.

This is the sixth year of the popular reality show.

An estimated 36.9 million people watched the "American Idol" two-hour special on Fox on Wednesday night, down slightly from the 37.3 million who tuned in for the program's two-hour season premiere on Tuesday night, according to Nielsen Media Research.

They were the two biggest nights of prime-time entertainment on Fox since it came onto the air almost two decades ago.

The audience for what host Ryan Seacrest dubbed "the weirdest turnout in history" on Wednesday was 17 percent bigger than the corresponding night a year ago, Nielsen said.

Superior Daily Telegram reporter Merilee Reinke and the Associated Press contributed to this report.