"Idol's" JPL Tells "Stories"

Life after not winning American Idol may not be all Grammy Awards and People magazine covers, but the show's also-rans seem to be holding their own.

Former Idol favorite Jon Peter Lewis, a top-10 finalist from season three, is set to release his debut album, Stories from Hollywood, Nov. 7.

The effort was more than a year in the making for Lewis, who said in a statement Tuesday that he turned down multiple offers when his Idol run ended so that he could focus on cultivating his own style. His hiatus from the biz proved effective, apparently, as every track on his upcoming album is a JPL original.

"Looking back, it would have been a lot easier to jump into one of the offers handed to me, but it would have been a mistake to try and be somebody I wasn't," the 26-year-old Lincoln, Nebraska, native said. "My heart just wasn't into being a ballad singer or creating a teenybopper image. I've always felt more comfortable with a rock edge.

"It's been a long and challenging road over the last two years, but well worth the wait."

Lewis's eighth-place finish in 2004 was good enough to win him a spot on the American Idols Live tour that summer, praise from Elton John and more than 6,000 friends on MySpace.com. Hopefully a few of them will turn up at Lewis' gig Oct. 18 at West Hollywood's famed Viper Room.

In other "where are they now?" news:

Idol refugees Justin Guarini, Kimberly Caldwell, Mikalah Gordon, Vonzell Solomon, Anthony Federov, A.J. Gil, RJ Helton, Jim Verraros and LaToya London made the scene Wednesday at the Spider Club in Hollywood to toast the launch of the syndicated series American Idol Rewind.