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Alabama farm boy Dexter Roberts may have been joking that his first order of business upon returning home after being eliminated from American Idol on Thursday is to camp out in the woods in a teepee, but don’t be fooled: he isn’t pitching his tent there too long.
STORY: ‘American Idol’ Castoff Dexter Roberts: On the Hunt for his Own Reality Show
Roberts already has his sights set on a move to Nashville, where he is determined to “launch a big album and start my career.”
Speaking with reporters on a conference call Friday afternoon, the exceedingly polite American Idol castoff promises his record will be in the vein of artists he admires, like Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Craig Morgan and Eric Church.
He will also take the advice of judge Harry Connick Jr. and try some ballads too. “I do write my own stuff,” he said. “I love singing ballads, and I love singing upbeat songs. So I’m just going to have to figure out what best fits me.”
Although Roberts acknowledged the judges’ and mentor Randy Jackson’s criticism to put his own spin on songs, week after week, he pointed out that it was sometimes a struggle with the band to change things up. “I wanted to try and make songs more my own, but the band didn’t think it would sound as great,” he said, as the band advised Roberts to “just play the record…I tried as much as I could.”
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He said he has no regrets about singing Bryan’s “Muckalee Creek Water,” and shared a secret about what may have motivated C.J. Harris for picking that song for his buddy. “I sing that song all the time in the shower, and I think C.J. was just really getting tired of me singing it all the time,” he said. “He just wanted me to sing it on national television to get it out of my system.”
Roberts said he also got great advice from Idol winners Taylor Hicks and David Cook during his competition. Hicks made it a point to visit the kids in the Idol tent, Roberts said, and told him to “have fun, be yourself and kill it,” while Cook, he said, was the best mentor of the entire season. “It was like getting a cheat sheet, really, because he had been in the situation,” he said.
As for the big American Idol season finale on May 21, Roberts teased that he is working on a surprise, and promises that he is going to “step out of the box and do something crazy.”
Twitter: @MicheleAmabile, @Idol_Worship
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