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'You take away the swear words ... and you read what they're actually trying to say,' he tells MTV News of nasty comments.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Jim Cantiello

Casey Abrams
Photo: MTV News

You might be surprised to learn that, when he wasn't slapping the bass or battling colitis, recently departed "American Idol" hopeful Casey Abrams enjoyed nothing more than kicking back, stroking his beard, and diving headfirst into the sea of comments fans of the show had written about him. And, unlike pretty much everyone else in "Idol" history, he preferred them to be as nasty as possible.

"What you have to do is kinda, you have to translate it. If they're saying negative things about you, you take away the swear words and like 'I hate you' and you read what they're actually trying to say," he told MTV News. "And, if [they wrote] 'Casey sucked this performance, he sounded like a dog,' I take it as 'Casey, stop growling so much.' And if I see more than, like, 10 comments like that, I'm going to take it as a sign, and I'm going to try to ease up on the growling."

So Abrams used fan comments much in the same way he did the input of the "Idol" judges: He weighed their value against his instincts and acted accordingly (he certainly didn't stop growling). Like he told us previously, it's all "jelly beans in a jar." And though he read plenty of nasty things about himself, he let them all roll off his back — except for one thing. Seems you can call Abrams whatever you want, just don't equate his performances to jazz.

"The jazz thing [bothered me]," he said. "I didn't see a lot of negative comments, but I saw that, like, it fell flat, and I'm OK with that. When I first listened to jazz, I didn't like it at all, I hated it, and then I had to play it to really get what it meant, so every single negative comment, I get where they're coming from, so it's all good."

Don't miss "Idol Party Live" every Thursday at noon on MTV.com for analysis, celebrity guests and even some karaoke — get in the conversation by tweeting with the hashtag #idolparty! In the meantime, get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' "American Idol" page, where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.

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