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BULLIED WITHOUT MERCY – CLAY: ‘I DIDN’T WANT TO SING’

CLAY Aiken opens up on today’s “Dr. Phil” about the merciless bullying he endured in junior high school – and how it made the future “American Idol” star a better person.

“It was a really tough time – middle school’s really tough – I think everybody has trouble with middle school,” Aiken tells “Dr. Phil” McGraw on today’s show, devoted to the topic of bullies.

Aiken is now the best-selling “Idol” alum of all time with his “Measure of a Man.” In his book, “Learning To Sing,” he wrote about getting picked on by his class mates in Raleigh, N.C.

“You say in your book that you were teased by other kids like it was their job,” McGraw says. “I think it was [their job],” Aiken responds. “They would have been rich if they would have gotten paid for it.

“It’s about being comfortable with who you are and once I found out and once I figured out – you know, who cares what people think about me.”

Aiken also talks about how his singing eventually led most of his classmates to stop picking on him.

“There was a long time when I didn’t want to sing because I thought people are going to pick on me now if I’m the singing kid – and to be honest with you, some people did [pick on me],” he says.

“They started to pick on me because I sang and because I was in musicals,” he says. “I was the only guy in choir in my entire high school. So people picked on me for that.

“And so people didn’t stop picking on me because I found something that I was good at [but] because I found something I was good at and was proud.”