Bowie's been a huge influence on me. I remember early on, my dad pulling out the 'Diamond Dogs' album, and the cover alone just grabbed my attention. I think I was probably around 12.
The album feels like a new era for me -- emotionally, lyrically, sonically. It feels fresh, it feels new. It's still me. It's still stuff that fans know and love but it's a new chapter 100 percent.
The biggest risk I've ever taken is going on American Idol and trying to be myself. I wasn't going to try too hard to conform, and I knew that it could possibly not work out.
We don't have a lot of men on stage doing flamboyant or theatrical. We have a lot of female pop stars doing it, but where are the guys? Where's the classic pop-rock showman?
I was looking for something and I wasn't sure what it was. [After experimenting with] certain funguses, I had a psychedelic experience where I looked up at the clouds and went, 'Oh!' I realized that we all have our own power, and that whatever I wanted to do, I had to make happen.
I think the difficult thing is the transition between TV competition series and going into the actual music industry. There still seems to be a slight disconnect there.