David Cook will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Lied Center.

“Is Abe and Jake’s still there?”

David Cook is in Utah — or he was on Wednesday for a gig in Park City. But sitting at an elevation of 7,000 feet surrounded by the craggy peaks of the Wasatch mountain range, Cook’s mind is elsewhere.

The Missouri-bred musician and season seven “American Idol” winner is trying to remember just how long ago it was that he last performed in Lawrence.

Cook will return to the site of those early days this weekend, albeit in a slightly larger venue. His “Digital Vein” tour — which shares the name of his newest album — makes a stop at the Lied Center this Saturday.

Abe and Jake’s was one of his first shows, back when his Kansas City band (Cook hails from Blue Springs, Mo.) opened for an alt-rock outfit with the somewhat creepy name of Caroline’s Spine.

Yes, Abe and Jake’s is still there, he’s reassured. Cook thinks about it a moment, then backpedals.

“I think Maroon 5 might have opened that show, actually. They might have still been Kara’s Flowers back then. I’m dating myself here,” he says with a laugh. “That must have been more than 10 years ago, at least.”

A lot’s happened since then. Cook, now 32, skyrocketed to fame after his 2008 win on “American Idol,” went platinum with his first major-label album in 2009, parted ways with RCA Records after the release of his second in 2011 and dropped his third post-“Idol” album, “Digital Vein,” just last month.

“This record just reignited my love for making music. I had contemplated maybe hanging it up for a little bit,” he says. “I just wanted to see if I could still enjoy making music, so I started writing ‘Digital Vein,’ not really sure if I was going to finish the record, and something clicked.”

On “Digital Vein,” Cook — who produced most of the songs himself under his own Analog Heart Music label — found himself experimenting with a new, “more modern” sound. The result, he says, is a fresh, energized collection of tracks that live crowds have embraced over the last few weeks.

Reviews so far have been positive, with Cook’s moody take on Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” and the synthesizer-laced “Kiss & Tell” generating considerable buzz in critics’ circles.

Yet, as the rocker admits, it’s an album that very nearly wasn’t made.

While on the road promoting his first album after “American Idol” in spring 2009, Cook received a devastating blow. His older brother Adam had succumbed to a decade-long battle with brain cancer, and not knowing how to cope, Cook “didn’t stop” touring.

“I think we rescheduled one show for the funeral, and other than that, it was kind of, you know, stay the course. So, you don’t process things the way you should,” says Cook, who soon afterward hurled himself into the “big undertaking” of “This Loud Morning,” his ambitious second major-label effort. “I didn’t enjoy that record process as much as I could have or should have.”

Taking the time to “step away” from music gave him the clarity to make “Digital Vein,” Cook says, “and ultimately, thank God, I enjoyed it.”

As for the singing competition that launched his career seven years ago, Cook says he’s “sad to see it go.” After an unprecedented eight years of ratings domination, in 2012 “American Idol” began to decline in popularity, thanks in part to competitors like “The Voice.”

Earlier this year, Fox announced that the show’s upcoming 15th season would be its last.

“I think, in an industry where it’s so easy to be heard but so difficult to get people to listen and pay attention, I think ‘Idol’ afforded that opportunity to a lot of people, myself included,” Cook says. “I know the market has been saturated in the last few years with other shows, but there was just something so special about that show, about ‘Idol.'”

Perhaps what made “American Idol” so special was the serendipity of elements coming together at a certain point in America’s popular culture — when reality TV was brand-new, when the concept of handing off the power of record-label executives to ordinary citizens in choosing the next big pop star seemed revolutionary.

David Cook doesn’t know. “Maybe it’s just time,” he admits.

“American Idol” may be going away, but the fans who have followed Cook since his days covering Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton songs on national TV are still around.

He’s even picked up some new ones along the way. All are “awesome,” Cook says.

“I owe them quite a bit, especially in that last four years between records. ‘Thank you’ seems extremely underwhelming in that regard, but it’s unfortunately all I’ve got,” he says. “So, thanks.”