Jeremy Bradley- One of our editors here she says she remembers you with blond hair, and I said, "I don't think I've ever seen that." Have you ever had blond hair?

Chad Doucette- No. She's probably thinking of Craig Sharpe. He was on the same season as me. I've always been a blackhead.

JB- She did a search of your name literally seconds ago, and she said that she found an album cover with you with blond hair. I think she's nuts.

CD- Yeah, I don't know. It must have been someone else's picture that came up.

JB- Yeah. She's not Internet savvy usually anyway. I'll let her know.

CD- OK. Cool.

JB- Chad, tell me, what were you doing before Canadian Idol?

CD- Before Canadian Idol I was finishing up high school. I was working at a local grocery store in the produce department. Doing a great job. Just basically living the normal, small-town life back in Nova Scotia. Pretty boring stuff.

JB- How has life changed since then? First of all, what is your favourite grocery item?

CD- Favourite grocery in the produce department, or overall?

JB- Surprise me.

CD- I would say. . . You got to go with the classic: the pizza. Delissio, the pick-up pizza. It's not delivery. It's Delissio.

JB- It is and it's totally different. What toppings? What do you have on it?

CD- I usually go for the three meat. I can't really get too healthy when it comes to my pizza. I just think when you're doing pizza you do it right, you know?

JB- There's no sense in eating it then.

CD- Exactly. Exactly.

JB- You know what else is interesting is getting the cheese one and then buying your own toppings, and then have somebody else make it for you.

CD- True. That could be more affordable as well.

JB- That's what I do. I just get the cheese because it's cheaper and then you just get the fresh whatever. As you know from the produce section. . . . What is the produce pricing right now?

CD- Unfortunately I've kind of lost touch with that medium of my life. I'll have to get back to you on that. I imagine that lettuce is a buck 49 - somewhere at that level.

JB- Do you remember years ago when it wasn't that expensive? Well, maybe not.

CD- (laughing) I'm not sure. That's when my parents would buy all the fruit and stuff for me, and then all of a sudden when I turned 15 I was on my own.

JB- Will you ever get back to your "roots"? Ah, forget it.

CD- (laughing)

JB- So about Idol. What made you audition for the show?

CD- Well, I mean, I've always been into music. My family was and still is very musically influenced. On my dad's side they're very heavy into the bluegrass, like, banjos and mandolins. All that type of music. On my mother's side everyone plays guitar and sings. Once I actually started to develop my voice I realized that I'm not too bad at this whole singing thing. Once that show came around, it kind of seemed like the perfect thing. Just take a chance and see what happens, and I tried out the year before I finished fourth. I made the top 48, which was right before the live show. It kind of bothered me that I made it that far and didn't get to go on live TV, so I wanted to give it another shot to see if I could up the ante and I did.

JB- Did you ever think you'd get as far as you did at that point?

CD- No. I don't think anyone goes in there expecting to do that well. I had no real expectations for myself. I was hoping I'd do as well as I did the year before, and hopefully a little bit better. I had grown a lot since the year before, but you don't know the competition that you're going against until you hear them. There are so many things, and it's all, like, voting, so it's out of your hands in that way. I just hoped and it worked out pretty well.

JB- What did you change about your performance or what you did? What did you do differently?

CD- Well, I think it was just a year of growth. It was from 16 to 17 and that year of just natural life changes that you make or whatever. Since the show I feel like I'm a way better performer, a way better singer, a way better writer than I was when I was on Idol either year. So it's just . . . you keep developing. I'm sure in a few years I'll feel even more confident about my abilities, so it's not one thing in particular. You just learn things as you go.

JB- What did you learn then about yourself as an artist, as a performer, as a singer, as a musician?

CD- Since the show? Well, ever since the show ended I decided not to rush into anything. I wanted to move out to Toronto. I made that decision right after I turned 18, so I left home and I moved to Toronto. I decided to get heavily involved in songwriting all around the city. I decided to book my own gigs. Doing everything myself. Kind of running my own business basically and it forces you to grow up more than anything. I've pushed myself vocally because I'm writing with so many different people. Each one of them pushes my voice in different ways, so I've grown a lot vocally as well. Just doing my own thing and being out there and working at it has developed it over the last few years. I feel really good about how I've grown.