Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 What were your general impressions of the judges after your experience? Well there were other sets of judges in the beginning. Initially, Simon, Paul, and Randy, and all the earlier judges, people that worked on the show, you definitely knew that they knew what they were doing and they have experience with music and with the entertainment business in general and you can see that in their eyes. Just staring them down when you're singing for them, and their giving you this serious face and you don't know what they're thinking; they either love you or hate you or there's something else. But you can definitely tell that they're legitimate and that's the feeling that I got right away. And furthermore, they gave a lot of constructive criticism and they gave you room for improvement, and I definitely loved all the advice that I got from each and every one of them. How jarring was it being thrust into the media firestorm being on American Idol out in Hollywood? Well, I can tell you, being on American Idol, and like you said, being thrust into entertainment and all the buzz, it's like nothing else because there's no other media out there quite like that where you're thrust out to the top of the entertainment business at such a quick rate. People don't know you one day, and then 40 million people tune in and watch you and develop feelings about you; they love you, they don't love you...but either way, they're talking about you and they know who you are. So, it's really like nothing else to be a part of this experience. And to go from being a regular kid in high school to being Kevin Covais, it was definitely interesting. You were certainly one of the younger competitors, especially coming down to the final twelve. Do you think that brings some kind of stigma, do you feel like you were judged differently because of your age? You know, honestly, I never thought that age was an issue in the competition, at least not for the contestants. I think the judges judged equally, as far as everyone that was competing for the most part. Me, Lisa, and Paris coming down to the top twelve, we were rather young. Paris was 17, I was 16, and Lisa, a few weeks younger than myself was the youngest at 16 as well. So I think people thought that there was a little more pressure on us, but honestly, we handled ourselves very well and I know that they're two of my best friends, Paris and Lisa; I love them to death. For kids we did a great job on the show and I don't think we ever used age as an excuse or even regarded our age during the competition. Everyone ran their own race, they did the best that they could do, and the judges definitely judged fairly as far as that. How disappointing was it being voted off and how far do you think you should have gone? Well, for me, in terms of being on the show, and just for what I achieved, I was so happy to make it to the point that I made it to. I can honestly say that, except for one outside reason, that I was not disappointed at all at being eliminated at number 11 this past season. It was such an honor. Honestly, to make it into the top 24, just to have America evaluate your performance is one thing, but then to know that America likes you enough to keep you around for about 5 weeks, kept me in the game for over a month, it means something. It means they want to see you and they enjoyed you and that they appreciated what you accomplished. So, for me it wasn't a disappointment at all. I made it so much further than I had ever initially dreamed. I remember just making it out to Hollywood and thinking, "Oh, I'm not going to make it any further than this." And then little old me made it all the way to number 11 and I was so happy. I think that the only thing that I was disappointed about at all was the fact that I was not able to go on the American Idol Tour this past summer. Unfortunately, while the Top 12 gets to do the album and the finale, and are considered finalist and are placed into history, unfortunately, only the Top 10 get to go on tour. So that was a huge disappointment to me only because I missed out on more time with all my great friends on the show. I missed out on the summer time, and, you know, most importantly I missed out on time with fans around the country. I get the great fortune of seeing all my fans around home all the time, but it would have been great to see all the die hard fans of me and of Idol as a whole going to every stop on tour. So that was a low blow for me. That one definitely hurt, but other than that, I'm just so happy on how far I made it. Who did you feel was the best American Idol last year? Who were you rooting for after your elimination? Well, in terms of if I'm allowed to be a fan of my friends on the show, I would definitely have to say Mandisa was fantastic. I'm not going to say that I went home too soon, but I can definitely say that she went home too soon. She was an incredible talent and she really deserved to...I think she could have lasted to the very end on the show. She was fantastic. Another one of my personal favorites was Elliot. He was a good buddy of mine, and that voice was something special. He was absolutely incredible, and in terms of being able to enjoy someone else's performance, I would always look forward to his performances because you knew you were going to get something special with him. Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3