David Cook Recording With Green Day Producer

David Cook has promised to make a rock record that’s true to himself, and the American Idol winner has confirmed that the studio maestro tasked with helping him realize that goal is Rob Cavallo. The producer has already lent his talents to high profile projects from My Chemical Romance, Kid Rock, and, most extensively, Green Day, including their Grammy Award-winning album American Idiot, and Cook is confident that Cavallo is the right person for his upcoming release. “I think he’s a great producer with the kind of sound that I want,” Cook tells EW.com. “And in talking to him, he’s just a good guy. Like the song selection I had on the show, Rob just fit.”

The two are currently squeezing in studio time whenever the Idol summer tour allows, and Cook still plans to release the album in mid-November. As previously reported, Cook has had writing sessions with Our Lady Peace’s Raine Maida and Collective Soul’s Ed Roland, but there’s one person who isn’t involved with the album: industry vet Clive Davis, the man who executive produced all of the Idols’ debuts, but whose role at SonyBMG, where he’s currently Chief Creative Officer of SonyBMG Worldwide, has shifted. “I never heard his name brought up,” Cook said.

That may free up Cook to make his own decision about whether to include his Idol finale single, “The Time of My Life,” on the album. (Being forced to include a generally-sappy but familiar song on a decidedly rock debut had been a bone of contention for one previous winner, Taylor Hicks, who reportedly resisted having “Do I Make You Proud” on his album.) Cook hasn’t yet made the call about the single. “It’s not like there’s any resistance to [the song],” he says. “My goal is to make a cohesive record, and I don’t want any song to stick out like a sore thumb. But in every meeting that I’ve had with 19 [Management] and RCA [Records], they’ve been very supportive of what I want to do with my record.” (From Entertainment Weekly)