Fancast: Inside TV

On his lack of experience performing…
I started playing guitar in my freshman year of college, singing shortly thereafter. While I was learning, I was teaching myself and so I would learn songs, but I would never learn them all the way through. So now trying to learn two in a week has just been tough.

On making it further than any of the finalists that viewers never saw in the audition rounds…
I think a lot of it just has to do with my uniqueness in many ways and just being different from the usual thing. I at least catch the eye and the ear a little faster than anybody else, and so that was an advantage. So I was disadvantaged coming in, but, I guess, just being me was an advantage.

On whether he was concerned by his lack of attention in the audition rounds…
Yeah, I was a little. Because I would see how people were getting excited about other people, and I was like, ‘uh oh.’ They were already getting fans. And I knew why they weren’t airing my stuff because I didn’t clear (songs for airing on TV). So I was OK with it, but it still, you know, it wasn’t fun.

On what he’s excited to get back to back home…
I don’t know how soon that’s happening, because what I’m hearing is that I’m not going to get to go home. Because we’re going to New York this next week and then we’re back for the finale. So I don’t know when getting home will be (happening), but I love being home in the summer and I kinda miss working in the summers with my dad, but I don’t know if that will happen again. He has a company that designs and builds custom swimming pools. I’ve worked with him since I was 15, and I just did drafting and did outside work, I would survey lots and clean pools and stuff like that.

On Simon’s comment last week about him not being the Jason they brought into the competition…
Well, I was feeling the same thing. I was just feeling myself losing that power just because I couldn’t connect with the songs with the given time. I really had a hard time when we picked it up to two songs, and I wasn’t committing to either one and I just couldn’t connect with them, I couldn’t fall in love with it. You need time for that.

On whether the show portrayed him how he really is…
I think it very much does. [Laughs] I am a goofy person, I have fun with everything. I am kind of an awkward conversationalist; I’m trying my hardest right now. But all my friends, they love it, because what you see is what you get. I didn’t change at all coming out here.

On what he thought after forgetting the lyrics…
I knew them. I know when I got up on stage that day it was really rushed and I’d barely sat in my seat and they told me to go and so my mind was just kind of a blur. I just sang and got to that part and I kind of forgot where in the chorus I was, so I didn’t know which ending I was supposed to be doing. But I knew that was the end of the chorus, so I went on from there.

On whether he mouthed the words “don’t vote” on Tuesday night…
[Laughs] I was saying “vote,” and then I said it again because I was kind of trying to emphasize that, but nobody heard me. And I remember going and sitting down and kind of thinking about it and they kind of have the same syllables, and (thinking) it’s gonna look like “don’t vote.” And I consciously, the second time, I only said “vote” once when they were doing the numbers, because I thought of that.

On whether he’d thought about which song he’d perform next week…
Yeah, a little. Usually the songs I want to do don’t clear because I’ve kind of tried to clear them a few times, but there’s a song I hadn’t tried to clear yet by Cary Brothers called “Blue Eyes.” That’s one I wanted to try to do next week, and it’s one I already knew and love. That would’ve been good. I don’t know about the other two. [Laughs]

On what he learned…
I’ve learned I can do a lot more than I thought. You know, before I did this, I wasn’t really confident as a performer and I wasn’t doing it a whole lot, and, well, now I did it for a few months straight, on TV! So I just gained a lot of confidence and learned that I could do it, so that’s cool.

On which songs he wanted to do that didn’t get cleared…
In the auditions, for my first two, I sang “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley in the style of Ray LaMontagne, one of my favorite singer-songwriters ever. And another one I like to do is “Santeria” by Sublime, and I tried to do that one in Hollywood week and they said it cleared, but then they changed their minds, and then I tried again but it never cleared.

On what it was about him that stood out among the thousands of contestants…
I think it was the potential, you know. Because I was so new at it and what I had done so far, I think it just showed some potential that it could be something. And especially, considering the nature of the show, I am very much, you know, what the show was originally about. I am kind of as raw as it gets, I haven’t done much of anything, singing-wise.

On his “guy who wandered in” persona and whether he wanted to win…
I did come in with that attitude, and I made it farther than I could have imagined. I didn’t consider it a real possibility that I could win until these last few weeks, and so I did kind of just wander in and see where it would go. And it started going so I thought, ‘Alright I’m here, might as well be in it to win it.’ And I was giving it my best, you know. I never had the mindset of winning first place, but it was more like every week I wanted to give it my best. And that leads to winning.

On whether he’d really never heard of “Cats” before…
I’d heard of the show, but I didn’t really – I mean, by the time I sang it in front of Andrew Lloyd Webber, of course I knew it was a cat. But when I first heard the song, I didn’t even know it was from “Cats” I just thought it was a good song.

On when he learned that it was sung by a cat before meeting Webber…
Probably, like, a few minutes before that. [Laughs] I actually knew it was from the musical, “Cats,” but I didn’t realize it was a cat singing until that moment when the producer told me as she was interviewing me.

On driving the Jeff Buckley version of “Hallelujah” to No. 1 (on iTunes and on Billboard’s “Hot Digital Songs” chart)…
That was awesome. I couldn’t believe when I saw that, I realized the amount of power that “American Idol” has - that I could sing a song and it could push this song. I don’t know, it was just such an honor, you know. If people hadn’t heard that song, they should’ve, and I’m glad now they have.

On what was the biggest misconception about him…
There was an interview last week some time that I had said I wanted to go home or something. And I think this week everybody had the idea that I was ready to go, and that wasn’t my mindset at all going in. But every week has its ups and downs and that morning when I had that interview, I was just kind of frustrated with a lot of things – by my music, the way it was coming along, and we were selecting songs that just, I don’t know, there was a lot going on that morning. So that kind of came across wrong and just with the way I was on the show, I guess people were kind of thinking that I didn’t want to be there, which was never my mindset.

On whether he thinks it matters who wins…
It very much does matter who wins, or at least how far you get. Every week you’re on gives you that much more of a chance, because you’re never guaranteed anything in this business, but I think we’ve all been given the opportunity to have some exposure so now at least people know who we are; maybe they’ll take a second to listen. So I think it matters that we’ve all kind of gotten the opportunity.

On what he thought of Paula’s mistake last week…
That was kind of funny [laughs]. I was just kind of confused, you know, like, “What’s going on?” But, I don’t know, it was an honest mistake, and I don’t think it really effected my next performance.

On his relief Wednesday night…
I was as happy last night as I was when I found out I made the top 24. This whole time I’ve had a blast, and I was trying. But it’s just really been hard, and I remember that night I was really starting to fear the week ahead, like, if I made it, how am I going to do three songs, I can’t even do two right? And with the hometown visit, it was just going to be a lot of work, even though it was going to be so much fun. I was just freakin’ out about it. And so that was all building up and so I was ready to go, either way. And my natural reaction, I just really felt relieved like the pressure was off. And, you know, I loved my time on there and I would’ve liked to have gone farther, but I don’t think I could handle it. So I’m content.