When Jason Castro was ousted from American Idol Wednesday night, it quickly became the stuff of quasi-controversy (with a little help from Simon Cowell, of course): Did he actually want to go home? The 21-year-old from Rockwall, Texas, was ready for the conspiracy theories post-elimination.
On rumors--and Cowell’s implication--that he forgot the words to Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" on purpose because he was ready to go home:
"Yeah, somebody told me that earlier. I definitely did not do that on purpose. I couldn’t believe I forgot such a popular line, something that’s like written on your soul. Somehow, it slipped my mind. But I definitely didn’t do that on purpose."
On additional rumors that he had mouthed the words "Don’t vote" following his first performance on Tuesday night:
"I was saying, ‘Vote.’ And then I said it again because I was kind of trying to emphasize that, but nobody heard me, and I remember going and sitting down and thinking about it, and that they kind of have the same syllables, and [I realized it was] going to look like ‘Don’t vote.’ That went through my mind, and I was like, ‘Dang it.’ And I consciously--the second time, I only said ‘Vote’ once."
On his cover of Jeff Buckley’s "Hallelujah" (which was a cover of Leonard Cohen’s original) driving the song to No. 1 on iTunes:
"That was awesome. I couldn’t believe... When I saw that, it’s like I realized it was, like, the amount of--I don’t know--power that American Idol has, and I could sing a song, and it pushed this song. I don’t know. It was just such an honor. And how cool? If people hadn’t heard that song, they should have, and I’m glad now they have."