Rock stars of various stripes

In the tiny, tiny lull between the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention, let's talk "American Idol." Specifically, Kara DioGuardi. It turns out, the Globe's Joan Anderman spoke to DioGuardi several years ago, in a story about writing songs for the likes of Ashlee Simpson and Lindsay Lohan. Here's a PDF of Joan's piece -- linked from DioGuardi's website.

The more I think about this, the more I'm looking forward to hearing another voice on the panel, since Randy has devolved into a flashily-dressed series of tics and Paula has only a few things to say, ranging from "You look beautiful" to "What you do is hard" to "You're standing in your truth." And someone else who has direct experience with the current set of pop stars -- as opposed to, you know, with Journey -- couldn't hurt. No disrespect to Journey, of course.