Clayton Holmes Grissom was born on November 30, 1978 in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Faye Aiken Parker and Vernon Grissom. When Clay was a teenager, he had a love for teaching and helping young children and later on studied to became a school teacher. When he was about 23 years old, a longtime friend persuaded him to audition for American Idol. When he was 25 years old he released his debut album, "Measure of a Man." (singles from his debut album include: "Invisible," "This Is The Night" and "The Way") His debut album sold over 600,000 copies in the USA in its first week of release. It has sold almost 2.5 million in the US as of 4/16/04.
It doesn't really matter to me how I make a difference, I just wanna
make sure that I do.
I'm never really comfortable with people cheering for me.
I think there's a difference between appearance and image. An image is
not how you look. It's what you do. It's what you portray. Your
personality, the example you set, and that's huge for me.
American celebrities have an amazing amount of influence on the way
America thinks, feels, and acts. I think that such an influence should
be used in the most positive way possible.
I'm religious. I think this is something God had planned for me.