Simon Cowell has been giving his side of the story lately to all who’d listen on why he decided to drop ‘Pop Idol’ runner-up Darius Danesh and watch him get snapped up by rival record company, Mercury.

Speaking to the press, the BMG big shot became conscious over time that with Gareth and Will on his books, his time with Darius would be restricted in concentrating on establishing him as an artist.

He also admits that he’s a pretty big fan of the crooner. “I like him a lot. Plenty of a-lots and I would’ve liked to give him a contract that he deserves no doubt. We met several weeks ago and I was very honest with him. I said ‘Look, if you want to, we’ll do something with you.’ But Darius is very smart and sweet and he knew he was going to a third priority when it comes to Will and Gareth. His manager told me Darius was afraid that he wasn’t going to be a primary concern of mine and he’s right. Definitely not when I’ve got to nurse Will and Gareth right? So there.”

Not surprisingly, for Darius, a lot of labels were obsessed on getting their hands on him and soon, as reported earlier on Pop-Music.com, decided to bond with the good people at Mercury Records.