How were you feeling the morning the video premiered?
I was really stressed out, because we debuted it on Kidd Kraddick’s Ustream channel, which has a lot of viewers, and so I was just kind of worried about what people were going to think about it. And I didn’t really get to enjoy it. And then I sat down later and really enjoyed it. I was so amazed by the quality of it and how it turned out after editing.
Well, you’ve had a lot of great feedback from being on Kidd Kraddick’s show, so you had to assume that people that had been tuning in to hear you sing were going to love it.
Yeah, totally. Being on his show has been an amazing thing for my career and this whole transition. It’s definitely given me a much bigger fan base. It’s been a great opportunity to show off my not only my artistic ability, but also to show off my personality, and people get to know more about me.
On the topic of Kidd Kraddick, how did you appearing on his radio show come about?
You know it’s funny, 'cause I always wanted to be on Kidd Kraddick in the Morning. When you live in the market where he’s broadcasting, it would be so cool to go on his show and perform or even just interview or whatever.
I remember tweeting him several times [laughs], selflessly plugging myself on Twitter. I never got to be on his show, but then after American Idol, they saw me on the show, and actually one of his co-hosts, J-Si, picked me to win the whole thing after the audition. You know, obviously that didn’t happen. When I got kicked off the show they sort followed me to see what I was doing and saw that I put “The Last Song” out, and Kidd heard it and loved it. He had me on the show (back in early March) to play “The Last Song."
So, I went on the show, played “The Last Song,” did an interview, and then afterwards Kidd talked to me and said how impressed he was with my songwriting and my character and integrity as an artist. He was like, “Man, if I can think of a way to help you out, I will,” and I really appreciated that. Low and behold a week later, I got a call from him during the radio show, and he asked me if I wanted to do “Idol Got It Wrong.” It was an idea that he came up with. Wednesday nights I would watch American Idol, pick one of the contestant’s songs, learn it over night, then perform it Thursday morning on his show and listeners voted whose version they thought was better. It was just a great chance for me.
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