Here's the relevant part of the Delaware Interview:
Cook enlisted a diverse batch of musicians and songwriters to assist in swatting those 11 dingers over the fence, and that's what probably gave his eponymously titled 2008 album such wide appeal.
A few of the co-writers who provided the post-grunge punch were heroes for him. Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace -- one of Cook's favorite bands of all time -- co-writes four songs on the record. Nineties rockers Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra and Goo Goo Dolls' main man Johnny Rzeznik have prominent spots in the credits.
And Chris Cornell of Soundgarden helped deliver arguably the biggest smash of the album, the anthemic "Light On."
Like the meeting with Aaron, Cook had to check his fandom at the door when he went to work with these heavyweights of modern rock.
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"It was a conscious thing for sure," Cook said. "To walk into a room and say, 'OK, I'm not a fan right now. I have to walk in like a peer, sit down like a peer and leave like a peer.' "

There were a few surprising names in the cast of characters as well. Singer-songwriter Cathy Dennis, who had a bunch of R&B/pop hits with "Just Another Dream," "Too Many Walls" and "All Night Long (Touch Me)" in 1990, co-wrote "Heroes" with Cook and Maida.
"She was really cool," Cook said. "I wasn't really sure what to expect. I think she definitely brought a pop hook to it. It was good to have somebody kind of outside that little circle."
It's odd that Cook now enjoys working with others, since he said he got burned out on co-writing and sharing ideas when he was in his first two bands, Axium -- which managed to get placed in a "Got Milk" contest -- and Midwest Kings, in which he played guitar.
"I would filter my ideas through other people. Being in a band with other people for eight years, I got tired of that."
In 2006, Cook released his first solo album, "Analog Heart," a collection of 10 songs he wrote that started to rack up MP3 sales on Amazon when he appeared on "Idol."
But after Cook won "American Idol" -- thanks in large part to a new rule that allowed musicians to play instruments on stage - he was more than ready to sit down and play nice with others again. For the session with Maida, Cook simply walked into his house, sat down and hammered out three songs, two of which made it onto the record.
"It was like an old friend," Cook said of collaborating on tunes. "That's just that lightning in the bottle stuff."
When Cook arrives in Delaware for tonight's show at the fair, it will be his first visit to the First State. And it will likely be the first time that his fans hear reworked versions of the hits off his latest album. Cook said he and his band wanted to give some of the songs a different feel so that they sounded fresh when played live.
"I think the more you kind of let yourself marinate with these songs, you find different dynamics in them," he said. "You find more aesthetic things within those songs to try to ease into the show."

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Innocuous comments like that are how it starts. Then a year later your soul and free will are in a box in Cook's basement. (tm Wheeziev)