'American Idol's' James Durbin: 'I put my foot straight through the door'

In perhaps the biggest shocker outside of Pia's elimination, James Durbin was sent home from "American Idol" at the Top 4 stage. He talks to the press about his time on the show and making friends with "Dancing With the Stars" contestant Chris Jericho.

About his "Idol" experience:

"Thanks to being on Idol I got to let loose and get into my stage manager/production thing, working on this and that, playing piano, Zakk Wylde, the marching band, the costumes. Just every single one of my stage performances was all me. I wrote it, I drew out a storyboard, every single one of my performances has an idea and I just ran with it. I'm really, really happy. I really am. It sounds cliche, but honestly I feel with my run on 'Idol,' I really did what I wanted to do ... I came in, I accomplished it and I put my foot straight through the door."

His reaction to being eliminated:

"It's been a real whirlwind of emotion, but I've been really thinking about why I came on the show and why I even auditioned in the first place. I'm brought back to those feelings - it's for my family and it's to try to give a voice to a genre of music that seems like it's slowly fading away. I just really accomplished a lot on the show and I'm just really grateful and thankful for the opportunities."

On the best advice the judges gave him:

"Don't hold back, just roll with it. Just keep going. Keep giving it everything. And Randy said, 'You know, this is your competition to lose.' I felt like I'm going out on top one day ahead of two of my best performances of my entire life. I'm my own biggest critic and I shut my self up on that one. I was just really proud of myself and really proud to see what was next and go home for that Top 3, but not everything works out the way you expect it."

On the best perk outside of the "Idol"-related stuff:

"I became good friends with Chris Jericho who was on 'Dancing With the Stars' because we filmed at the same studio and that was really nice. I've been a wrestling fan since I was 12 and he's always been one of my favorites. We could talk about wrestling and talk about music. He's a singer in a metal band, so it really worked out, it was nice."

On who would play him in a movie about his life:

"I think I'd want to play myself ... but maybe Matt Damon 'cause I've been told I kinda look like him. And then Steven Seagal can play me when I'm an old man."


"American Idol" airs Wednesday and Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.