This week, fans said farewell to Daniel Seavey after his American Idol elimination. Daniel shared with us about his experience on the show and his plans moving forward.

Q: How is your voice after having laryngitis on the show?

Daniel: I'm exhausted, of course, but I feel great going home and being able to see all of my friends.  The laryngitis is still there, but it's not as bad as it was a couple of days ago so it's slowly going away.  I'm just excited to be able to go home.

Q: What's the first thing your going to do when you get home?

Daniel: Well, apparently, half of my school is waiting at the airport tonight for me so I'm going to see all of my friends first, which will be awesome.  Then I'm going to sleep for about ten years.

Q: Were you surprised by your elimination last night?

Daniel: I just had fun with the experience, and I am so thankful for it however I got this experience.  I do want to be able to prove that I am an artist, and I can sell music, and so that's my next step, is to start writing music and putting it out there to show the world that I'm not just a cute kid.

Q: Kelly Clarkson week can be pretty intimidating. Why did you choose 'Breakaway' and how did you feel about it?

Daniel: Kelly Clarkson is an amazing vocalist.  She has the range of an angel.  It's hard to find a song of hers that I could sing because she has such an amazing range... I chose "Breakaway" just because the lyrics fit so perfect for this whole experience.

Q: What did you learn about yourself from this experience?

Daniel: I think I learned about myself that I could really do music for the rest of my life, and I have a lot of room to grow.  Because when I came into it, I wasn't coming into it to grow.

Q: As a young contestant, how was it having your Dad accompany you during this journey?

Daniel: I loved having my parents with me on this whole journey because everybody else, all of the adults, they all wished they had family here.  It's like a huge homesick issue when you're there, and so, having my parents here really helped that.

Photo credit: FOX