Cowell: She's got an amazing voice. She put out a record that wasn't good enough. But if Tamyra had been given songs as good as Kelly Clarkson's, she'd be selling a lot of records.

Playboy: Who is your favorite American Idol singer?

Cowell: Well, I love Fantasia. And I love Tamyra. In terms of pure quality I love Kelly. I said a few unkind things about her after she refused to allow her songs to be sung on Idol, and I stand by that. But Kelly's really one of the top five singers in the world today. This girl is a young Aretha Franklin.

Playboy: Judging from what you said on the show, it's surprising you haven't mentioned Carrie Underwood, who won season four. You told her, "Not only will you win this competition, but you will sell more records than any previous Idol winner."

Cowell: I was looking at Carrie purely from a marketing perspective. We needed a nice, cute, blonde middle-American country crossover artist that year, and we got it.

Playboy: So while you judge the contestants, you think about which one can most help the show.

Cowell: Of course. If they're not successful on the back end, there's no point in doing the show. I'm looking for the person who will sell a lot of records, because then the show will have more validity the following year.

Playboy: Does that mean sometimes the best singer doesn't win?

Cowell: I think the American audience has pretty much gotten it right every year. Tamyra was the one instance when I felt disappointed. I would like to have seen her compete with Kelly in the final. It would have been well matched, whereas Kelly versus Justin Guarini was just a ridiculous mismatch.

Playboy: Did you see the movie they did, From Justin to Kelly?

Cowell: No, I couldn't bring myself to watch it. I was dead against it.

Playboy: Do you think it was made just for money?

Cowell: Yeah, I mean, there was no other reason.

Playboy: Have you been offered any film roles?

Cowell: I did a cameo in Scary Movie 3 and realized I can't act. The money was good. Normally I'm very confident; I'm in my environment, looking at everybody, going, "Ha ha, you don't know what you're doing." Then I was the one who didn't know what he was doing, and it was just mind-blowingly embarrassing. Any role I'm offered now, forget it. Not interested.

Playboy: You think Clarkson is fantastic, but in your autobiography you say Bob Dylan is earnest and boring. To you, is Clarkson better than Dylan?

Cowell: Do I prefer Kelly Clarkson's music to Bob Dylan's? Yes. I've never bought a Dylan record. A singing poet? It just bores me to tears. And I've got to tell you, if I had 10 Dylans in the final of American Idol, we would not be getting 30 million viewers a week.

Playboy: But is the show only about getting 30 million viewers? Isn't there a point when you think, It would be great to discover the next Dylan?

Cowell: I don't believe the Bob Dylans of this world would make American Idol a better show--and that's no disrespect to Dylan. Good luck to you; you're very talented. Just not my thing.

Playboy: If you went to a club tonight and saw the 21-year-old Dylan singing "Blowin' in the Wind," what would you do?

Cowell: I'd plug my ears and run in the other direction.

Playboy: In 1995 Robson & Jerome, one of the first acts you signed, were a pair of actors who had sung the Righteous Brothers song "Unchained Melody" on a British TV series. You were just looking to cash in quickly on their fame.

Cowell: I knew thousands of people were trying to buy the record, so I put the record out. It was as simple as that. It made a lot of money, they made a lot of money, and we're still friends today. No, we didn't go into it with a 20-year plan.

Playboy: Did you think the Undertaker was going to have a career as a singer when you signed him?

Cowell: Oh God, no. That was just my being a businessman. If you can sell 82,000 stadium seats, chances are you're going to sell a few hundred thousand records alongside that.

Playboy: Lots of other executives would be embarrassed to sign a professional wrestler, the Teletubbies or TV actors. Why are you different?

Cowell: I'm interested only in making money, for myself and the people I work for. I mean, that's absolutely the only criterion I attach. That's it.

Playboy: Your only interest is money?

Cowell: That's the only thing we think about: Will it make money? And not just for us--for the artists as well. Let me tell you, artists are as interested in making money as we are. They're not donating their money to charity, trust me.

Playboy: What do you do with all your money?