Part 2: Larry King Live Web Exclusive Interview, Danny Gokey on Kris’s Win, Future Plans

Q: What are your thoughts on Kris’s victory?

GOKEY: Well, remember I picked him to win yesterday when we spoke, and here’s why.  Kris and I have large fan bases, and we share a similar group of fans, so it made sense he would pick up my votes.  If he had lost and I were in the finals, I think his fan base would have gone to me.

Q: Did the right person win?

GOKEY: I think whoever won, America would have gotten it right.  There wasn’t a bad, or wrong choice.

Q: Did you enjoy performing last night?

GOKEY: I loved being part of last night.  I got to sing with Lionel Richie.  For me that was the highlight of the entire season. I thoroughly enjoyed that.

Q: Do you feel like your “Idol” experience is complete now?

GOKEY: I do feel like my “Idol” experience is complete.  I’m very happy with the season and relieved its over.  Now I’m ready to take my next steps.  This is not the peak of my career, it’s just a door that opened up to it.  I needed to walk through the “Idol” door to get to the rest of my career.

Q:  Looking back on your “Idol” experience, is there anything you think you could have done differently that would have put you in the final two?

GOKEY:  Oh, absolutely.  Absolutely.

Q:  What would that be?

GOKEY:  Get out of my head — just for me to get out of my head and stop analyzing things.  I overthought things way too much.  I look back on it, and I’m like oh my gosh, why did I do this, that, or the other thing?  But the thing is, I’m OK with it, because I feel like I overcame a lot in these last 10 months.  I think I overcame so much.  Now, the past is the past.  This show has launched me into my career.  It’s launched me — it’s helped me reach my dreams.  And I can’t complain.   I’m very thankful for the experience.  My career is now in my hands and what I can learn off of what I feel like were maybe mistakes on the show.  I can now learn off of that.  I’ve grown as a musician on the show, and I can become more of what I want to be.  If you ask me, this is where it really starts to count, is after the show.

Q:  So it’s where you can launch yourself into the public eye and stay there?

GOKEY:  Exactly, and that’s the opportunity at hand.  I don’t have to stand on the stage competing against another singer.  That will never happen to me again. So, with that pressure off, now the doors of creativity can open up and I can start to express myself and express my heart in my music, and I won’t have to overanalyze things, because I’m going to have more time to pour into my music career.  And not only that, there’s more that I’m going to do than just music.

Q:  Like what else?

GOKEY:  Number one priority on my list — I’m going to be meeting with managers to see what is going to happen with my music career.  But in the meantime, I’m going full force into my nonprofit organization, Sophia’s Heart Foundation.  The vision inside of me for my music is not just the music itself, but it’s also the foundation and how I want to mix the foundation with the music.  That’s huge to me.  And then, I want to start a line of glasses, and maybe somehow the glasses could benefit
the foundation.

Q:  I was going to ask you about those glasses.  What made you do that?  I mean, that was your trademark on the show, really.

GOKEY:  Here’s what I would do.  I’ve always loved glasses.  Always have.  I’ve worn glasses since I was in the fifth grade.  But, you know, I’d never really done — not big with tattoos.  I don’t have any piercings, but I wanted to stand out in my own way.  And so, I just started getting glasses, and that became my thing.  I came on the show with about 15 pair, and since the show, now that I’m off, I have about 50 pair.

Q:  Was there a song that you didn’t get to perform that you would have liked to?

GOKEY:  I would have loved to perform “Still” by Brian McKnight.

Q: Is there a song you performed on the show that you wish you hadn’t?

GOKEY:  There were a couple that I wish I didn’t perform.  I wish I didn’t do “Get Ready.”  I wish I didn’t do “Dream On.”  Those two songs especially stick out to me.  But , it’s OK.  You make mistakes along the way.  You only get a couple of days to do your music picks, do your arrangements, learn the songs and do everything else in between.

Q:  What was your favorite performance.

GOKEY:  Favorite performance — I had three of them.  “P.Y.T.,” “What Hurts the Most” and “You Are So Beautiful.”

Q:  What’s next for you? I know you go on the “Idol” tour, correct?

GOKEY:  Yes.  Here’s the plan for me.  When I’m on tour, I want to be able to give the vision of Sophia’s Heart Foundation to my employees, to the workers of my company.  And I want them to implement that vision and take the necessary steps to make that vision come to pass.  They’ll do all the leg work, do all the writing, do all the meetings, hopefully.  And then I want to work on my album.  I want to work on writing my own songs, and then coming up with the plan to attack, and I can work on the album at the same time.  Because you see, if you put the right people in the right place it will work, because I carry the vision, but I can’t implement the vision.  I don’t have enough time.  But if they can implement it, I can just spread the word, and they take it from there.  Someone else can accomplish my vision for the foundation, but nobody can be me on the stage.  I can’t have someone else sing my songs and be me.

Q:  One last question.  Did you ever think this would happen to you?  Did you ever see this coming?

GOKEY:  Man.  You know, since I was a kid, I always felt like God had placed something inside my heart?  And I always believed that God was going to do something great in my life.  But I didn’t know the road that I was going to take to get here.  And especially losing my wife.  That was the worst thing that I’ve ever been through. But, for the road, I wish there was a different path.

But I have to say I did believe that there was something great.  Not because of me, but because the being that created me is great.  I really give all credit to God, because there’s nothing special about me.  I’m just not that good.  But I never would have thought that it would have been this way.  And I’m really trying to learn how to take a painful situation and make it gainful.  And that’s what I’m doing.  And I’m hoping that people, from my situation, have learned a few things about themselves, that maybe they can push on through things that they don’t like.  Because the one thing that’s been on my heart is that a lot of people are defined by their situations.  They are defined by being a crack addict, or they are defined by their parents having abused them.  But instead of letting my situation define me, I let it become a defining moment in my life, and something good has come out of it.  I hope that people get that side of me that’s saying, listen, don’t let that tragedy or that failure define you, but let it be a defining moment where you step up and become greater.

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