Michael Johns received a shock elimination from American Idol last night.  This may not have been a bad thing for Michael.  The Chris Daughtry comparison has been thrown around regarding Michael (but more so for David Cook), and the fact that being eliminated at this point in the season will give him a lot of freedom when it comes time to make his first album.  Johns has more commercial potential than most of the American Idol singers this season, and is one of the very few singers whose album I might give a listen to.  This morning, Johns conducted a conference call interview with the press and discussed his elimination and his time on the show.  

During his send off performance last night, he was not even thinking, which is why he may have performed so well.  He's not going to lie, either – he was extremely surprised that he was eliminated last night.  He's still a little bit in shock.  He never chose a song based on what everyone else was doing, and he had no problem doing “Dream On” by Aerosmith on Tuesday.  No regrets.  Apparently, according to one reporter, Michael has a very goofy off stage persona.  But, he says that he likes to keep it professional on stage.  He was planning on doing a version of “Vision of Love” for Mariah Carey week next week. 

He respects Simon's comments, but he didn't want to sing the bluesy stuff every week.  He considers himself a rock/soul singer and not a pure blues singer.  Michael was a little put off by Ryan's “maybe you aren't going home” riff at the end of the episode last night.  But, he's OK with it – Ryan apologized profusely after the show.  Michael has been hearing a lot of the Chris Daughtry comparisons over the last day, and he's still not sure about it.  He thinks that, whether you win the show or not, post-Idol success usually comes when a singer remains true to themselves, and that's what Michael plans on doing.  Michael admits that, to drown his sorrows, he'll probably be drinking a bit of beer coming up pretty soon.  

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman contacted Michael this morning, as did Dolly Parton, to tell him how much they enjoyed Johns and his performances.  He's going to have a lot of options for where he makes his first album, one would think.  Michael doesn't believes his ascot had anything to do with his elimination.  I agree. 

-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)