John was appearing at the event to promote the new season of Nashville Star, which will air this year on NBC-TV. He will be a judge and mentor on the series. John laid into American Idol judge Paula Abdul for her lack of attentiveness during a recent episode, saying that, “American Idol infuriates me as an artist. They’re not doing it real. When you can’t make a cognizant comment about someone’s performance and you’re commenting on something that happened the day before, why don’t you just walk up on stage and slap them right across the face while you’re at it? As an artist, I would just flip them the bird and walk off the stage. She [Abdul] wasn’t even paying attention to what was going on.” John added that Nashville Star would not be a scripted reality show like American Idol. “We have to respect the fans’ ears and eyes and give them something that’s for real,” John noted. “Don’t try to con them.”