After nearly being voted off of Nashville Star in this season's premiere, country singing hopeful Alyson Gilbert rebounded to prove herself to both the fans and judges Jeffrey Steele, Jon Rich, and Jewel in the last few weeks. As the competition becomes increasingly tough as the seasons moves toward crowning this year's Nashville Star, Alyson Gilbert's time on the show came to end this week. Although all good things often come to an end, we caught up with the former Nashville Star contestant to see what she has planned for the future, how she's going to make the experience work for her career, and how she feels about Jewel's comment about needing to find some hurt.

THE DEADBOLT: How tough was the experience for you?

ALYSON GILBERT: You know, it’s a very high pressure experience. You’re out of your comfort zone. You’re away from your intimate support system, like your family and your friends, and you kind of have to go internally into yourself to find the strength to keep going. And I think that you don’t always have to do that in your everyday life because there are people there to encourage you and tell you - you did great. It was tough. But it was an experience that I feel very fortunate to have been able to have. And I think it’s going to make me - or I think it did make me a stronger person within myself for sure.

THE DEADBOLT: What was the most important thing John Rich gave you?

ALYSON: The best thing about John was that he said, "If you’re not tough enough to take my critique, then you’re not tough enough to get beat up, then you’re not tough enough for this industry. And you really need to think about it." And I thought, "You know what? That is so true." And I tried to keep that mentality every time a judge gave me a tough criticism. I just had to say "okay" and get knocked down and stand back up. And [he] kind of brought that to the forefront of my brain. I think that helped me out a lot.

THE DEADBOLT: Did your mom’s presence help give you added confidence?

ALYSON: You know, having my mom there, she’s been at a lot of performances since I was a little girl. For me, it wasn’t added pressure. It was just great to have her there. I know that she’s 100% behind me, period, and there isn’t any question. I never question whether or not she thinks I’m great. And that can really be a huge help in high pressure situations.

THE DEADBOLT: At this stage of the dream, how do you make this experience work?

ALYSON: Gosh, I think any opportunity that comes your way, take full 100% advantage of it. And that’s what I intend to do. I really want to hit the ground running and work every angle that’s handed to me and do every interview I can and really just continue getting as much exposure as possible. I think that’s how you make it work, just stay in the public eye as much as you can.

THE DEADBOLT: What did you feel about Jewel’s comments when she said to go somewhere and find your soul or feel some hurt?

ALYSON: I’ve felt plenty of hurt in my life. You know, I think that Jewel doesn’t know that much about me personally. I think she’s just basing it off what she’s seen. I respect her opinion and I think she’s an amazing musician. But she doesn’t know me, know me. And so I think that it’s just one of those things. [I’m] like, "Okay, I’ll go do some soul-searching I guess. People like different things about people for different reasons and she just didn’t like me, and that’s okay.

THE DEADBOLT: You guys just didn’t click, I guess.

ALYSON: I think that probably we would get along just fine on a daily basis. As far as musically, we don’t quite connect, no.

THE DEADBOLT: When you become successful, would you ever consider coming back and being a judge on a show like this?

ALYSON: Yeah, I think that I would because it’s a tough job. But I think if you can go into it sincerely -- which I do think all the judges are there sincerely to try to benefit our careers -- Jewel included in that - I think that if I am able to have the level of success that any of those individuals have, if I can lend knowledge that I’ve learned, then I think that would be an asset to somebody who’s trying to come up in the business. Then I would definitely consider doing it.