It's after midnight, but the shoot for David Cook's first music video, ''Light On,'' is just beginning in the middle of a football field at Los Angeles' Valley College. Director Wayne Isham is bragging on Cook's personality to his cameraman and other assembled crew members. ''I loved meeting you yesterday,'' gushes Isham, who has worked with many of the biggest names in the business over the last 20 years, ''because you're the nicest guy.'' Cook demurs upon hearing that praise, telling everyone, ''Give me 15 minutes and I'm gonna be the biggest a--hole you ever met.''

The man doth protest too much...and too politely, we might add. Over the course of a nearly seven-hour shoot, wearing a T-shirt in unexpectedly chilly weather, Cook proves unflappably affable, all promises of diva fits to the contrary. But do nice guys always finish first? They might on American Idol, as Cook did in winning this past season, but it remains to be seen how the singer will fare in the rock & roll musical realm he's reentering with his first major-label album, David Cook, which hits stores Nov. 18.

A couple of weeks after the video shoot, we caught some chat time with Cook, and true to form, the singer is proving quite sanguine under pressure, as you'll see in the conversation that follows.