This is the Simon Cowell we'll miss. As the tart-tongued-judge-everyone-loves-to-hate gets ready to say goodbye to "American Idol" tonight, he stopped by Ryan Seacrest's radio show to lay it all on the line.
What made him leave after nine wildly successful years? "The live shows are fun. It's the traveling, doing the auditions, I mean, it was just torture," Cowell drolly tells the "Idol" host and frequent target of Cowell's verbal arrows.
Cowell also informs Seacrest that traveling with the multi-media mogul -- and a particular Miley Cyrus hit -- figured in the "turning point" that made him bolt for the doors:
"I'm listening to you listening to Miley Cyrus' 'Party in the U.S.A.' You know when someone's got headphones on, and they sort of sing out of tune and really loud, and you played it five times in a row. And I actually thought then, 'I actually can't do this anymore.' "
