Record labels like to say that illegal downloads is what is bringing down the music industry and not their bad choices in music. However, one former American Idol had first hand experience with a label boss's musical opinion and now feels that label bigwig's advice led to his ousting from the show. TMZ reports: "American Idol" reject Jacob Lusk is telling friends he's not to blame for the TERRIBLE song choices that led to his elimination this week ... insisting he got BAD advice from Jimmy Iovine.
TMZ spoke with a source extremely close to Lusk ... who tells us Jacob never wanted to perform the Jordin Sparks /Chris Brown duet, "No Air" on Wednesday's show ... but Iovine pressured him into it. We're told Lusk really wanted to perform the Gnarls Barkley hit, "Crazy" -- but Iovine was so insistent on "No Air" that he basically "beat it into his brain" until Lusk finally gave in and agreed to perform the song.
During the show, Randy Jackson told Lusk, "I don't think that's the direction for you ... I don't think anybody on this stage should be doing duet songs." Lusk reportedly isn't the first one to point a finger at Iovine's advice and it's not James who is smart enough to ignore it