Music

As soon as American Idol's seventh season ended, Michael Johns got to work. Quickly.

"Once you're on Idol, you'd better know who you are and what you want to do," says the Aussie, who finished eighth. "Otherwise, you get stuck in limbo writing [songs] with 50 million people, and all of the sudden two years have gone by. Once you get off that show, every month the light gets a little dimmer."

His work has paid off with a debut album, Hold Back My Heart, which is out today.

"I really had a vision for what this record was going to be – a Joe Cocker meets Otis Redding kind of thing," says Johns, who wrote seven of the 12 tracks. "On the show, I got most of my reactions when I sang the soul stuff, so I want to give the ladies what they like."

Johns calls Fort Worth "my family home in America," because his in-laws live in the city. He and his wife, Stacey, are now based in Los Angeles, "but we're here every time there's a big meal: Thanksgiving, Christmas, anniversaries, birthdays," he says. "My mother-in-law is one of the greatest cooks around."

Stacey, an interior designer, met Johns one day as they waited for a valet in Hollywood.

"We started talking, and she was feisty," he recalls. "I was feisty, so I thought, 'Oh, I've got to hang out with this girl for a little while longer.' "

They wed at the Little White Chapel in Vegas in May 2007, and just two months later, Johns auditioned for Idol. The whirlwind then got off the ground.

"It can be the greatest experience – and then end," Johns says of the show. And even though he's been steadily working for the past year, "I could do Letterman, Ellen and the Today show all in one week and it would still be half the audience of Idol."

Johns keeps in touch with his fellow Idol alums, including David Cook, Rockwall's Jason Castro, and Brooke White, with whom he recorded the single "Life Is OK."

Each of them knew what kind of artist he or she wanted to be beforehand, he says: "If you're trying to find yourself on the show, I think that's where people get in trouble."

People also get in trouble on elimination night if fans neglect to vote. Johns will go down in Idol history as someone sent home way too early, joining a handful of others.

"I still walk around cities and they go, 'Man, you were robbed, man!' " he says. "That's a feeling you can't buy."

And although he's used to being recognized now, Johns says he still often forgets that people know him. While at a restaurant recently, the waiter approached him at the end of the meal and asked if he was Michael Johns. He confirmed.

"I knew it!" the guy said. "They've been talking about it the entire night."

"All your tables?" Johns asked, a bit alarmed. "Oh, man, what have I been doing? Did I pick my nose? Was I talking too loud?'"

Those surreal moments are now just a part of his post-Idol life. Johns says he pinches himself when he thinks about everything he's been able to see and do since the show ended. And today, with an album to show for it, he has no regrets.

"I can't complain," Johns says. "A year after the show, I'm exactly where I want to be."

Darla Atlas is a Fort Worth freelance writer.

darlajatlas@yahoo.com.