The popular country music competition Nashville Star made its sixth season debut on NBC this past Monday with a whole new crop of up-and-coming country hopefuls. Unlike some of the other singing competitions on competing networks, Nashville Star's strongest element has always been the caliber of talent among the contestants from season to season. On Nashville Star, most singers have been struggling for years to get their big break or they've been honing their skills on the amateur country concert circuit to get noticed. In order to make it as one of the finalists on the show, you have to be more than just a country idol wannabe... you have to be good. Since this year’s finalist will also be singing at the 2008 Olympics, there’s a lot on the line.

When the premiere of Nashville Star came to a close, judges Jewel, John Rich, and Jeffrey Steele, sent Utah native, Charley Jenkins, on his way home after he walked into the crowd to give fans his own rendition of Tim McGraw's "I Like It, I Love It" while unexpectedly looking a lot like Garth Brooks. The day after being voted off the show, The Deadbolt caught up with Charley to find out what went wrong, how he's turning his Nashville Star experience into a positive, and what the future holds now that the country dust has settled.

THE DEADBOLT: Charley, even Jeffrey Steele said you have a great voice. How are you going to turn this experience into a positive?

CHARLEY JENKINS: One thing, doing something like this, is it does expose you to things that you can do better. And watching myself on TV, and having that type of look, a real analytical look, there are certain holes in my game that I realized I can become better at and I’m gonna work on those. So any opportunity down the road, they won’t be exposed like they were on Monday.

THE DEADBOLT: Is there one moment from the premiere that you can point to and say, "You know, I'm a different Charley Jenkins than I was before."

CHARLEY: There’s not a whole lot that I can say was different before just because I tried to stay myself throughout the entire event and show. But I think it will effect me in the future, though.

THE DEADBOLT: What did you take away from the judges' feedback? Is there anything that's going to stay with you?

CHARLEY: Yeah, I mean one thing that really stuck with me was Jewel, and I don’t know if this came out on the taping, she said I was a little stiff. And watching it, I felt that I was a little stiff and I felt like I can convey and be a little smoother in my movements and just a little more relaxed when I sing. That’s something I want to work on, just because I want my audience to feel relaxed so they can enjoy what’s going on.

THE DEADBOLT: A lot of the girls were in tears at the end. How quickly did you guys bond with each other?

CHARLEY: We did, very quickly. Anybody that’s involved with music knows it’s powerful and it can be good and bad. You know, that was probably one of the biggest tributes, and it sent me off in a way that I felt I could really take a positive thing away from this, because they were all my friends. And regardless of what happened, I wanted to leave there with their respect. Also, you know, it’s good to be missed and I would’ve missed them. So by them even showing that emotion - plenty of those who weren’t even pulled up, other than Allison showing emotion - showing that to me sure meant the world to me, because they’re competitors. But more importantly, they’re my friends.

THE DEADBOLT: How did you feel about the judges' Garth Brooks comments? Do you think you went too far into that territory?

CHARLEY: You know, I didn’t feel like I swung from the rafters or I did anything that was completely over the top, above what I should’ve done. I just went down into the crowd and looked people in the eyes, sang to them and went back on stage and tried to get them clapping. Again, if they are bashing on Garth Brooks, I think they’re picking on the wrong person.