Jeremy Bradley- Joining me on the phone right now Lindsey Cardinale, is that right? I'm I pronouncing it right? I went to school with a Carnevale, so that's quite similar. You'll recall her from season 4 of American Idol. Hey there. How are ya?

Lindsey Cardinale- Hey! How are y'all?

JB- Good, so we're going to chat about everything, and of course, first off, like all the former Idol contestants I talked to: what made you try out for the show? Were you a fan? What was the motivation?

LC- It's kind of funny. I watched American Idol before I auditioned, but I wasn't like a religious thing for me. It was kind of, like, "Oh, this is a singing show." Something like that, and I heard, like, two nights before that it was coming to New Orleans, which is about 45 minutes from me, from where my hometown is. I was, like, "You know what? I sing strictly country music. There's no way that I'll ever make on the show." My mom was, like, "You know what? Let's just try it. Let's just see what it has to offer, and you have nothing to lose." And we went down the night before at 2 in the morning, and got in line and waited in line for about 12 or 13 hours. I don't know. I just kept going through the auditions and making it through, and it was actually kind of weird. So it wasn't something that I really had planned and was looking forward to for a long time, because like I said I wasn't a very religious watcher. I did think it was a good show, but I never really followed it that much. I didn't even know like everyone else knew that it was coming to New Orleans two nights before. It was kind of a last-minute thing. I just decided to do it.

JB- Now you said you did watch the show before. You aren't a crazed fan. Did you pick up anything from watching that show that you took into your audition then?

LC- No, I didn't. Actually I couldn't tell you then before I auditioned what night of the week it was on. I was a full-time college student, and I was really wrapped up in that. Like I said, I knew it was a singing show. Didn't really know much about the show exactly. I knew that Simon was one of the judges and he was the mean guy, but other than that I didn't really think that I was ever going to audition; therefore, I never really tried to sit back and catch some pointers or anything. I didn't even know what kind of process it was going to be like when I got there.

JB- You said you waited in line for probably about 12 hours. At that time, I guess, you saw other people practicing, practicing, practicing. Getting really into it. What were you thinking that whole time? Were you thinking, "Boy, this is really a waste of time," or were you sort of in that zone of preparing yourself for that audition?

LC- No, I didn't think it was a waste of time for sure, because I just felt like at that point I'm standing here, I'm waiting in line. All these people think this is just as important as I do. A lot of people were singing. There was a lot of rehearsing going on around me. There were some boring times standing in line. We were restless, and we were ready to get inside. But I was pretty much the quiet one. I kept quiet a lot of the waiting time.

I didn't actually know what I was going to sing until I stood in front of the first judges. It was really weird. Everything was just so last minute, but I'm that kind of person. I don't set my heart on something simply because I just don't want to set myself up for discouragement, if that makes sense. And a lot of times that's an issue for me, because if I practice a song, practice a song, practice a song - where I get it right where I want it - if I go out there and I don't do it how I thought was perfect in my practice, then I just, I'm kind of disappointed and I'm discouraged that I didn't do as well as I thought I should. So I'm very, very on edge about things. I never really rehearse a lot of songs when I go out and do them. I just like to be spur of the moment, and I feel like I do my best whenever I'm spur of the moment. Same thing with school. I don't study until the last minute and I do so much better.

JB- Well, that's interesting. A lot of the contestants rehearse once they get through on the show. You know, a better part of that week is rehearsing, doing your dance moves or your hand motions or whatever. I mean, the judges do give a lot of criticism about things like that.  Are they always, what's the word? are they justified in their critiques sometimes? How do you brush off the nasty comments?

LC- The nasty ones? They're always fun and they're always different every week you get something new that is kind of a nasty comment. If you walk off the stage with a nasty attitude from the comment, then it shows. You're always reading someone's expression. You have to take that criticism and you have to use it, use for constructive criticism. I know it sounds clichéd, but it really does help. Because if every show they say something nasty and you take it to heart, you're just going to be so hard on yourself and you can't do that. You have to just take it, and go with it, and really listen to it rather than thinking of it as a really negative thing or be "Oh, my gosh. They just humiliated me in front of three million people." Don't look at it like that. Look at it like they mean it when they said, "Don't close your eyes when you sing," or whatever it is that they say. Look at it like, "OK, am I really doing that?" Just step back off the stage a minute and look at exactly what they are trying to say to us. They're not out to just obviously be mean.