JB- As I mentioned, you were teamed up with Anne Murray this week, Tom Jones the other week. What was it like working with veterans like that?

ES- It's interesting, you know. It's cool to meet all these legendary people and see what they have to say. They have been in the business, both of those people, for 40 years so they usually have some pretty good advice.

JB- Those of us watching on television are sitting back and enjoying the performances by Anne and Tom. Is it different from a contestant's perspective? Are you sitting there and analyzing what they're doing it and interpreting it a different way?

ES- Well, you know, after, you know, you're on the show and you're analyzing everyone in this manner, so when you see the big people on the show too you can't help but do the same thing a little bit. I think they all would have done pretty good on the show.

JB- What's one thing you've taken away from any of the industry mentors you had?

ES- It's amazing to see them still pushing it like they do and still singing well. You know, they must take care of themselves. I don't know, it's pretty neat.

JB- You say they've been in the music industry for at least 40 years; you're 23, but you've already lived quite a life: born in Saskatchewan, you've done snowboarding in B.C., you lived in Hawaii for a brief time. I think that's when your music started, is that right?

ES- Well, yeah, more so (when) I was in Europe travelling a whole bunch and I was writing the whole time and playing my guitar and stuff. And I came home and I was going to go back to snowboarding and snowboard really hard that year. I was going to move out to Whistler and try be in a video and stuff but it ended up that I hurt my knee the first day we were filming so I decided, yeah, I might as well continue on with the music. I was kind of broke in between the two. I couldn't really decide what I wanted to do when I got home when I was in Europe. So that kind of decided it for me.

JB- How did you make the jump to construction in small-town Alberta/Saskatchewan?

ES- When me and my dad built our house?

JB- What took you to the career you had before going into Idol? Why did you get involved in that?

ES- I like a blue-collar job. I like a job where you can be outside and you're using tools and you're building something. You know, I don't know, I just got more gratification out of that type of work, I guess.

JB- So I imagine you'll be doing a lot of outdoor concerts then?

ES- Yeah, I think so. I'm going to do mountains, maybe a snowboard event. You know, you can have maybe some snowboard sessions and you can do a concert at night. Yeah, I'm all about the outdoor-type concerts.

JB- OK, give me a comparison of snowboarding to performing on Idol? What's going through your mind in both situations? What are you excited about? What are you afraid of? What's happening?

ES- Like I said, it all boils down to pretty much whether you're sitting at the top of a jump waiting to drop in or you're sitting backstage waiting and they're counting down to you running out on stage, it's the same type of thing. You have to just concern yourself with what your ego might tell you a little bit. You just kinda gotta go out and let loose or else you're gonna catch your edge and smack your face or you're gonna screw up your words, you know?

Jeremy Bradley- Earl Stevenson is joining us now. Earl, it was easy to jump on the "Earl train" this season, but you had a tough time with that last night. Nobody wanted to join the train. Seems like you wanted to go out with a party happening. How's it going today?

Earl Stevenson- I'm doing fine.

JB- You're probably one of the most talked about contestants this season, being the one with the most unique or different style - you're on stage, you're in a zone. Anne Murray said it this week that you need to look around and sing to the audience. You did it a little bit. Is that your style or are you the "just watch me do my thing" sort of performer?

ES- Instinctively I'm definitely more concentrated on the music and with the running around and stuff I can't sing as well. I get short of breath and all that. I'm more of a, yeah, just a . . . like the music aspect of it.

JB- Do you have any regrets about the things you did or didn't do on the show?

ES- I don't think I have any regrets, you know, you just have to live in the moment and see what happens, you know, you might have a regret about something and go back and try fix it and you might even screw up more. So you can't really have regrets.

JB- On Idol you took on some pretty big names for your performances - Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, The Tragically Hip - those are all pretty daring but you seemed to pull them off. What was with the big names you chose?

ES- So what are you asking exactly?

JB- What was with your song choices? Why did you go with such big names and familiar songs? Sometimes the judges say that picking the ones we all know is not necessarily a good thing.

ES- I don't know. I think you want to pick songs that everyone knows but you still want a song that has character and I think for the show you kind of want to pick songs that people know, so I guess that's why I picked more of the chart-toppers, I guess.

JB- What do you think of the judges' critiques? Did you put much merit into what they said? Or did you think, "I know the type of artist I am and I'm doing it my way"?

ES- It's hard not to get a little shooken (sic) up, you know, when people are saying one thing and someone else is telling you another thing. Sometimes it can play with you a little bit but in the end you've just got to be really comfortable with what you're doing and just going out and concentrating on doing it the best as you can.