Last Thursday night, Americans heard Ryan Seacrest utter these words, "America voted. This is tough guys, but one of you has to go and that person is Colton."

Colton Berry's American Idol dreams abruptly ended and a lot of people were left scratching their heads.

We've been waiting for a week to hear from him, and finally we know what was going through Colton's mind during that first elimination round, as the Staunton teen opened up Thursday afternoon.

He says, "I didn't feel like I was in the bottom two at all. And then he called my name and it was like whoa. It was utter shock.”

Colton says it just didn’t make sense, and neither did the comments made by judge Simon Cowell.

Cowell told Colton, “Get a good job and enjoy singing, because I don’t think you’ll make a successful career out of it.”

Looking back now, Colton chalks Cowell’s criticism up to him just being a character.

He says, “Simon is paid to be Simon Cowell. He is paid to be mean, he is paid to say rude things. So that's what he does. But he's a really great guy."

When asked if he would do anything over, Colton says, “A lot of people say I'd pick a different song, that song was so bad. I don't think so. I think that first performance people just got to know me.”

All this includes a certain daytime talk show host he claims to look very similar to: Ellen Degeneres.

Colton says, "She showed a clip of me singing 'Suspicious Minds' and said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah he can sing, but can he dance like me?'"

As far as a favorite Idol contestant, Colton says, “You know, we've been billed as the best Top 24 ever, and I think people watching the show can see that. The talent this year is ridiculous and I don't think I can pick out a specific winner because everyone's so good.”

Even though Colton admits he thought he was in it for the long haul, this entire experience, both stressful and amazing, is nothing but motivation for him to get to Broadway and send Cowell front row tickets.

If you want to see Colton in action, he's directing "The Wiz," which is on tap for the second and third weekends in March at Stage 4 in Verona.