המשך
Does it ever make you, self-conscious? "A little bit. You know, I'm a pretty shy person, and, I don't know. I wish everybody's intentions were written on their forehead. You know? Just, in the form of like a smiley face or something. So I'm like, 'OK, this person means me no harm.' Sometimes people get really, really excited, and if somebody like runs up to me or something my automatic reaction is to back up. And then it's like, 'I'm sorry, I'm not scared of you.' I just, I don't know." Kind of makes you feel a little more vulnerable, I imagine? "I guess. I think I'm just a bit of a nervous person anyway, so." Do you still watch "American Idol"? "I do." Any promising candidates so far? "Definitely. I do love watching. The beginning part's always really hard for me, because I know how nerve-wracking it is. Whether you're good, bad or whatever, you're potentially going to be humiliated in front of the world. So that feeling is a feeling like no other, and I hope I never really have to compete like that again." I keep reading about former "American Idol" contestants who have chosen to part ways with their record company, or lost contracts, and you don't seem to be in danger of that because you seem to really have legs, career-wise. But what do you think about that? Does that make you a little nervous, or is that just the business? "It doesn't make me nervous. I mean, everything seems to be going well. But everything , you know, it comes down to business. It's no guarantee, you know, when you're on the show, or when you win the show, that success is guaranteed for you for the next 30 years. So, everybody has to do their part, and you also have to have a lot of luck on your side. So, it just all comes down to, I guess for the record companies and things like that, business. And since the record industry is not really faring so well right now, you know, now's kind of a rough time, a rocky time." What do you think you'd be doing now, if you weren't a professional musician? "I always envisioned myself ending up in Dallas, working somewhere in the mass communications field. I mean I would have taken any job that I could have to start, and get my foot in the door. But I always loved broadcast, so I was hoping I'd end up somewhere in Dallas, either editing, or behind the camera, or just one of the team members, or potentially in front of the camera." Forgive my ignorance, but is that where you're from, Dallas? "No, I'm from Oklahoma. I guess Dallas was still close to home, but had a lot of opportunities for someone in the mass communications field." You seem to be, at least right now, in this special category, where you might be lumped in with Shania Twain or Faith Hill, having seemingly successfully crossed over from country to pop. Would you describe that as accurate, and how much of that success do you think is attributable to kind of the pop culture cachet of "American Idol"? "I've been really lucky in that, you know, I think a lot of people on 'Idol,' you know there are no genres on 'Idol.' So it's not like somebody, if they want to watch the show they're going to be exposed to rock, they're going to be exposed to country, they're going to be exposed to pop. So I think I was really lucky that I managed to gain some fans that didn't necessarily listen to country music so much. I've been also really lucky in that I haven't had to change my songs in order for them to be played on other genre radio stations. Like when 'Before He Cheats' did as well as it did on Top 40, it was the exact same version that was played on country radio. And I thought that was really cool. And I think it's great. Fans are fans, and being a part of 'American Idol,' you know, I'll take what I can get. You know, I'll take any (fans), whether they listen to heavy metal (laughs) or folk music or whatever." This tour with Keith Urban. Obviously, he's done quite well for himself. What's that like to be up there on the marquee with him? "It's really amazing, for a lot of reasons. I mean, he's a veteran performer. He's been doing this his whole life. And I think there's a lot I can learn from him. He's a nice guy. He's extremely talented, he's got a great voice. And also, I was a fan of his, I don't want to say growing up, because he hasn't really been, you know, a superstar for 20 years or anything. But in high school and things like that I was a huge fan of his. So it's really cool in that respect, to be on the stage with somebody that I'm a big fan of, and have been for a long time."