Idol Chatter & Voice Views

One could easily argue that Lee DeWyze’s best night on the Idol stage came a little more than a week ago.

He drew compliments for his rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man.” He drew high praise for his perofrmance of “Hallelujah.”

The secret to his success that night?

Look back no further than a few days earlier, when he journeyed from Los Angeles and Idol-ville to his hometown area, Chicago and Mount Prospect, Ill.

He was greeted by throngs of adoring fans — fans anxious to see him become the next American Idol.

“By the time you get to that last three weeks, I’ll tell you straight out, you are exhausted,” Lee said in a conference call with the media Friday afternoon. “There is so much mental stress going on. You want to win. You want to get as far as you can. It’s stressful.

“Going back home and being able to play for everybody was just the most amazing thing. It was the most surreal experience.”

Especially exhilarating was a mini-concert in Arlington Park.

Lee was supposed to play three or four songs. He wound up playing nine or 10.

“How do you not?” he asked. “They were all there for me, and I didn’t want to leave them empty-handed. And I didn’t want to be like, ‘All right, guys, I gotta get back.'”

That trip home, Lee said, amounted to “a big thumbs up from everybody. When I came back I had rejuvenated energy. I was just ready to do it.”

Two weeks later, he is the season nine Idol, of course, preparing for a summer tour and looking forward to recording a new album.

The tour will be a welcome change of pace, Lee said, because he’ll be about to put on a show “without time limits and judges.” He said he likes to build as he performs a song or set, which made Idol’s preference for one and one-half minute songs sometimes frustrating.

As for the album, he’s looking for “a folk rock, kind of alternative vibe to it. I want it to be very earthly, but at the same time, reach out to a lot of different people.

“I’m going to have a lot of say in it,” he said of the first post-Idol album. “That was something I was worried about. Is it going to be like, ‘Here’s your songs. Sing them.’ And it’s not.

“I’m going to have a chance to write. There have been people who have reached out and want to work with me. I can’t wait to make an album that represents me and just put it out there and tour it.”

Among the other topics Lee addressed during his interview:

* On being forced to sing genres he wasn’t familiar with: “It was frustrating at times. I won’t lie. It was. There were some songs I never would have sang in a million years. But I signed up for it. And that’s the rule. You play by them and get by the best you can.”

* On his choice of “Beautiful Day” for a first single: “I like that song a lot. It’s a really good song. Is it something that’s necessarily in my genre? No. But, then again, there were songs on the table and I went with the one I thought would represent the moment the best because this year, they didn’t have an original song written specifically (for the finale).”

* On his co-finalists, Crystal Bowersox: “It could have been her up there. She’s an amazing person, an amazing mom, a great artist. I know she’ll be successful.”

* Sharing the spotlight with Simon on Wednesday: “I got a chance to talk to him, and he was really happy for me. He’s a really nice dude. I don’t feel like he stole the spotlight or anything. It was two big things going on in one night. I thought it was pretty cool, actually. It made the night really big. It was fun to be a part of it.”