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Milwaukee to celebrate Danny Gokey making top 3

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Danny Gokey’s hometown plans to go all out on Friday — a parade, concert and singing of the national anthem at a Milwaukee Brewers game — when he visits as a top three contestant on “American Idol.”

The 29-year-old church music director from Milwaukee and the other two contestants who made the cut Wednesday night — Adam Lambert from San Diego and Kris Allen from Conway, Ark. — will be making the hometown visits the show commonly films for footage to air in the two weeks leading up to the May 19-20 finale.

VISIT Milwaukee spokesman Dave Fantle said producers are bringing Gokey back to Milwaukee for a free public mini-concert, a parade and Gokey singing the national anthem at that night’s Brewers-Chicago Cubs game at Miller Park.

Gokey volunteers at Faith Builders Christian Church, which has locations in Milwaukee and Beloit. The Beloit location planned a screening of the show Wednesday evening after a service and also plans to show Friday morning’s concert with Gokey at the Milwaukee location.

Gokey lost his wife, Sophia, to a congenital heart defect four weeks before he auditioned for the show in Kansas City, Mo. In an interview posted on the show’s Web site, Gokey said he and his wife agreed he would try out for “American Idol” before she died.

He called her his “biggest inspiration.”

“We were happy and we were going to move forward, and then she passed away,” he said. “Something on the inside of me just bubbled up, and I feel like I have so much purpose, I feel like there’s a message that I have to give.”

His message behind his music sets him apart from the other contestants, he said.

“That message is to find hope ... to rise up above difficult situations, to just believe that there’s good things in the future if you can just get out of your past,” he said.

“I want to become the next American Idol because it’s a dream, it’s a dream come true,” he said in the interview on the Web site. “I think that I won’t disappoint people if they pick me for the next American Idol.”

Faith Builders Pastor Jeff Pruitt said he met Gokey in 2000 when he joined the church and within a year Pruitt asked Gokey to lead the praise and worship team.

He said he realized Gokey’s singing talent early, so he asked him to take over. But Gokey was hesitant.

“The first he heard he was going to take over ... he had some dry heaves,” he said, laughing. “Literally. He was pretty scared. He didn’t sing in public very much to that point.”

But over the next year or so he got more confident. And even now on “American Idol,” every week he’s improving, Pruitt said.

“He gets better and better and better and smoother and I’m watching his confidence grow,” he said.

It took Pruitt a little while to get used to seeing Gokey on television.

“It was very emotional to see him up there,” he said. “I was at home and I just cried like a baby. I was so proud of this kid and to see what he walked through losing his wife in August and to see him come out of total despair and have something to look forward to in life. It was totally surreal.”

But Pruitt is used to it now: “I think it’s where he belongs.”

Gokey went to Pruitt and asked him what he thought about him trying out for “American Idol.” Pruitt said a year earlier he saw Gokey on the show in his mind, but he wasn’t sure if he should tell him.

“When he came to me I didn’t know if I wanted to tell him that because I didn’t want to lose this kid, you know? He’s such a blessing to our church,” he said, but he ultimately encouraged him.

“He is the type of guy when he sings people just begin to smile,” he said.

He said people don’t realize how much Gokey loves to help other people, as shown by the Sophia’s Heart Foundation that he started. It helps children who need “restoration in various areas of their lives,” according to its Web site.

The top 10 “American Idol” contestants are starting a nationwide concert tour kicking off in July in Oregon. It hits Milwaukee Aug. 28 and Madison Sept. 4.

Mayor Tom Barrett said having a hometown singer as a top contestant on “American Idol” highlights the talent of not just Gokey but other Milwaukee musicians as well.