2012年10月29日，麥叔與老婆Nikki Reed創作並發行了新EP："The Best Part"；另外，夫妻共同創作並演唱的單曲"All I've Ever Needed"收錄於暮光原聲帶："Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 [Soundtrack]"中。
2011年1月27日，麥叔在美偶海選得到了金色通行證。
之後通過原創歌曲“American Dreams”晉級TOP24。
通過麥叔的推特，更多人知道了The Grand Magnolias，專輯銷量猛升到iTunes Rock Albums chart的第三位，總成績位於第43位。
麥叔談到，自己參加美偶，是因為朋友的女友強烈要求：“get your lazy muscian bum out of bed and walk five minutes down the street。”然後，麥叔8小時後現身美偶海選，抱著試試的心態唱了《tutti fruiti》，自此，納什維爾的麥叔變成了家喻戶曉的美偶麥叔。
Paul McDonald：
"I never even really got into it besides back when Ruben Studdard was on it. It was one of those things I fell into. I happened to be in town and it was 5 minutes down the street. My friend convinced me to walk down there and do it. I had no expectations of anything. That’s why I’m so happy to make it this far. There was no goals really set in stone. I was just doing it for fun. It never had been my dream to win American Idol. I was in it to have a good time. It was a once in a lifetime deal. I didn’t expect to get this far. Once I got down to the Top 10, I was thinking ‘Wow, I’m getting close, maybe I could do well in this thing.” You don’t realize it until it’s narrowed down. I was just taking it one day at a time."
