In 2009 Kris Allen charmed his way into the home’s and hearts of millions of Americans on the eighth season of American Idol! He blew our minds with his rendition of Kanye West’s “Heartless” and went on to be crowned the winner. Phew, now that that’s out the way….

Five years past American Idol, I caught up with Kris Allen in Orlando, Florida a few hours before he played his last show supporting Boyce Avenue on their “No Limits” tour. Still as humble and sweet as ever, I picked Kris’s brain about being on tour, life after American Idol, the success of his career as an independent artist, and everything in between.

Q. So, how does it feel to be just about done? It’s the last show of the tour…

A. Last show, it feels  good. We’ve been on the road for a long time and it’s been amazing. We haven’t been on a tour like this in a long time and it’s pretty extensive but the crowds have been amazing. The places, the cities we’ve been going to have been really cool. We’ve been able to go to some places that we haven’t gone in a long, long time. It’s been really really great but I’m also ready to get home.

Q. What’s the first thing you’re going to do on your very first day off?

A. Probably just hang out with my son. Just hang out with him, play with him… maybe we’ll go to the park if the weather’s nice. And then we’re going back to Arkansas for Thanksgiving.

Q. You mentioning your son, how exactly does having a family work while being out on the road?

A. A lot of Facetime, which is nice! My wife and him have come out a couple times but I’m so excited to see him tomorrow. I miss him a lot. But it’s good, I think that he’ll look back on this and go “my dad worked his tail off.”

Q.  Talk to me about American Idol… How was the transition from that? As you said some fans stick around and some don’t. Was it hard… like, yeah I’m Kris Allen from American Idol but I’m also Kris Allen the artist…

A. I think it’s still something that I’m having to do because I was on a TV show and people fell in love with that, people fell in love with me on the show but I don’t know. It’s been a really good growth experience. I feel like I have something to prove after the show. I went around and I sang a minute and half covers every week, which is awesome and I loved it but is that really proving who you are as an artist? I don’t think so. I had a lot to learn as a song writer, as a singer, as a performer and I feel like I still have a lot to learn but I’m getting there.

Q. Well, here you are five years later still successfully touring and selling albums, what do you have to say for yourself? What has been the biggest change in your personal life and in your career?

A. Personal life? You just grow. I don’t really know, I think the biggest thing is that we just moved to Nashville, which is a great city and we’re really happy to be there… and then having my son, he’s almost a year and half now, so that’s been a big change but a really great one. As far as career stuff goes, I’m on the independent trail right now and it’s been really really good. It was the perfect time to do it. I had a group of songs that I wanted to get recorded and it kind of just worked out really nicely to where we were able to do it independently and it’s been really nice. It’s been a lot of work but you learn a lot that way, there’s not as many people on your team… You’re kind of your own team but it’s been really great. I feel like learned a lot about the music industry in the past five/six years and it was just a good time to kind of step away from the label side of things and just make a record of my own. And you can kind of do that these days… a little bit of creative freedom, you know. And I don’t know, maybe we’ll make the next record like that as well maybe we won’t, I don’t really know. It’s just been a really good transitional period.

Q.  The response to “Horizons” since coming out in August has been amazing. It’s the first record you released on your own label DogBear Records and you had a broken wrist during the making of the album… how much does this particular album meant to you?

A. When you put out a new record you think, in the back of your mind ‘I love this but is anyone else really going to like it’… so you wait to put it out, and you wait to put it out and your sitting on pins and needles and then when it comes out and people really like it, that’s really nice. That’s all that matters because you put your heart and soul into the music and into recording it and writing the songs. I think if it means something to you and you really love it, I think that comes across and the right people will latch on to it.

Q.  Talking about the right people…. your fans, I don’t see them as the “fangirly”, bra-throwing type… what are you fans like and how do you deal with everything, like social media. I know twitter is crazy.

A. Every once in awhile (talking about the bra throwing). I think the fan base is really great and it’s kind of growing in a really genuine way as well. You have fans from the show (American Idol) and some of them stick, some of them don’t because it’s a TV show, you know what I mean… they’re like okay, well who’s next; And that’s totally fine but over the past five years or so I’ve built a fan base with some of them from the show and then some of them have loved what I’ve done after the show and then there’s some people who didn’t watch the show but they come to a live show and fall in love with that or they like the records. I like to think that my fans are very respectful and genuine that first love me, as person, and then loves the music secondly. They’re not fleeting fans, they’re there no matter what I do and that’s great. It’s nice to have fans like that.

Q.  I always ask people if they feel like they’ve “made it” and then if not what will it take to feel like you’ve “made it”?

A. No. I think that as far as what I do, I’d like to judge it on the live shows and how many people are coming to the live shows. Yes, I’ve made it… but have I made it to the extend that I want to make it? No. This is amazing but this also isn’t my show. I think when I get to point where we’re playing places like this and it’s my house… I think that’ll be really great. I just feel like there’s a crediblity there, that it’s widely known that people like your music and I think people do like my music but for the most part people that see me are like “oh heartless was great” which is totally fine but there’s a lot more to me that just the show but I never down play what I did on the show either because it’s got me here and shaped my career. It’s been a great thing.

Q. And then, last but not least… What’s next for Kris Allen?

A. We’ll go back out on the road. We’re actually coming back here (Orlando) in January, we’re playing The Social. We’ll go back out on the road for like two weeks. But as far as December and stuff goes, we’ll go hangout with my family for Thanksgiving and probably for Christmas as well. I’ve got a Christmas show that I’m doing… I came out with a Christmas song,which was a lot of fun. And then after the new year, start working on new music.

For artist info, tour dates, music, and more, check out Kris Allen’s official website and follow Kris on twitter for updates.

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