Gas leak during 'American Idol' auditions leads to emergency evacuation

There have been explosive moments and leaked auditions on American Idol over the past 18 seasons, but both almost literally occurred on Sunday’s episode, when a gas leak caused the cast, crew, and contestants to flee the scene. “Do you guys smell gas? It’s pretty intense,” a wary Katy Perry called out. “I have a slight headache from it. Oh, it’s bad. It’s really bad.” “We’re getting heavy propane,” Luke Bryan told producers. “This is not a joke. There really is a gas leak.” Alarms went off and the set was promptly evacuated, where outside a typically dramatic Katy swooned and fell to the pavement, moaning, “I’m not feeling good.” But she seemed to recover rather quickly, and may have just been trying to attract the attention of the hunky men in uniform who had swooped in to save the day. The best moment was when the firemen finally gave the all-clear and everyone celebrated with a group singalong of judge Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long,” which was good enough to earn all of the firefighters golden tickets. Maybe it was the guy who sang right before this emergency situation, 28-year-old Jovin Webb, that had caused the audition room to get so fiery. My favorite contestant of Season 18 so far, he infused his “Whipping Post” with so much soul, grit, and the pain stemming from the recent, sudden death of his “biggest fan,” his beloved mother. What a phenomenal performance this was; if there was ever any evidence that Idol producers did the right thing years ago when they elevated the show’s age limit from 25 to 28, it was this, because Jovin’s life experience is what made this audition so special. “You officially brought the barbecue sauce to American Idol. …BB King once told me it’s hard to sing the blues from the backseat of a limousine. In this case, you’re coming from the ground floor. That was so real,” said Lionel. Luke ran up to shake Jovin’s hand and raved, “I could sit and drink a lot of bourbon listening to that voice. I heard your whole life in that performance.” Wow, BBQ and bourbon? I think this budding superstar has some endorsement deals in his future.