February 3rd, 2013
After 12 seasons, everyone know that American Idol fans love a good sob story. But did contestant Matt Farmer stretch the truth just a little too much?
During Farmer's Wednesday night audition, the 26-year-old claimed to have sustained a traumatic brain injury after an IED exploded while he was serving in Iraq. The singer said the medication he took for the brain injury was supposed to leave him sterile, but six months later his "miracle baby" Cadence was on the way. Adorable little Cadence, now three, even accompanied her daddy to his audition, where he sang Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" well enough to earn a ticket to Hollywood.
But now it looks like Farmer's military story was a total fabrication. The website Guardian of Valor, which strives to “out people who falsely claim military service and/or claim unauthorized medals or tabs,” immediately smelled something fishy about the singer's story and quoted many soldiers who had allegedly served with Farmer and countered his injury claim.
When contacted directly by Guardian of Valor, Farmer at first said that American Idol took things he said out of context. But he later made a full confession, saying in a written statement, “Everything you have read is correct. It was ALL lies. I in fact HAVE lied since a younger age and had a problem with it. I am coming out and making a statement (even though I was instructed not to) because I DO want to come clean.”
“The lies end here," Farmer continued. "I want to base the life I have left on nothing but what is real and genuine and in the here and now. I am EXTREAMLY [sic] remorseful and VERY upset that I allowed myself to take from the hard work of the guys that I was deployed with among others,” said Farmer, adding, ”To think that I would go on a national tv show and get away with continuing a lie so big, and so deeply imbedded in my lfe and brain [sic].”
American Idol has not yet commented on the controversy, but Farmer says that he is no longer involved with the show, so it sounds as if he was disqualified or failed to make it past Hollywood Week.
You can check out Matt Farmer's full audition (and hear his apparently very tall tales) in the video below:
