Metal Vocalist Covers “Holy Diver” on American Idol

It comes as news to me that American Idol is still on television for its 21st season, but I guess your mom has to watch something at night. Last week, in the fourth round of auditions, vocalist Rach Karma performed an acoustic rendition of the Dio classic “Holy Diver.”

If you’ve watched American Idol before, it’s probably not a shock to you that the judges didn’t know what the fuck was going on and did not vote for Karma to advance to the next round. However, we did get a story from judge Lionel Richie about his friendship with Rob Zombie.

“I have not heard that song in a hundred years. I’m a big fan of rock ‘n’ roll. I know this may sound kind of strange but Rob Zombie happens to be one of my dearest friends.”

He then recounted the time that he and Zombie teamed up to cover The Commodores’ “Brick House,” calling it “Brick House 2003.” The information came as a particular surprise to judge Katy Perry, who was shocked that the pair of musicians have a friendship. Meanwhile, judge and country music superstar Luke Bryan said that he would have to look up what a “Holy Diver” is.

Fortunately, all hopes of stardom aren’t lost for Karma. She is also the vocalist for Connecticut-based gothic metal band Nevermøuяи, who dropped first single “Release the Demons” in January of this year.

Hard rock and heavy metal traditionally haven’t gotten a ton of love on American Idol but Bon Jovi was the focus of an episode in 2007 and Zakk Wylde appeared in 2011 to perform a cover of Sammy Hagar’s “Heavy Metal” with contest James Durbin, so it has happened before. You can watch the video of that performance below, as well as Karma’s American Idol audition and Lionel Richie’s story.