Danny Gokey

Going home to Milwaukee. The reception that they gave me was the best I received anywhere in the country.

I think she’s going to do great. I really do. It’s almost like, ‘Simon, you might have to move over a little bit…’ They needed someone on the show who has heart. Paula had a lot of heart. Ellen has a lot of heart. I think she will speak more from the heart. She’ll probably be easy on the contestants because she’s any easy-going person.

I just signed to 19 Recordings and RCA. I’m very, very excited about it. I didn’t have very much experience in the industry. Doing gospel music, that wasn’t the route I was going to take for my professional career. It’s an awesome opportunity, and I can’t wait to pour my heart and soul into the record.

Paula was the only judge who would come backstage and talk to us. She would encourage us, tell us she loved us. She was just a very interactive judge. One time after the show was completely over, she took us all out to eat. We just hung out with her. She was always the judge who came to the tour rehearsals.

I was relieved because the pressure of the show was intense. I felt so proud of myself for what I had accomplished. That I was able to follow my dream in spite of tragedy.

I was. I didn’t know that people didn’t know. When you are around him, you assume that people know what you know. He made it the point – that he didn’t want that to be the thing that got the attention, he wanted the attention to be on the music. I think it was a bunch of ladies dreaming and wishing that they had a chance. I think they just wanted to hold out, maybe that they would marry him. Hold out all hope.

I created a foundation in my wife’s name. We loved giving to charities, we loved volunteering with community organizations. That’s where our passion lies. When she passed, I created the foundation because I just wanted to keep her legacy alive to help families who’ve been touched by poverty and sickness. Our primary focus is our music and arts program. We are raising money for a facility to now that's geared to the MTV-driven culture that we are in. We want to leverage that to allow kids to create their own music on their laptops. We just awarded three scholarships to people who have gone through some pretty tough obstacles.

I definitely plan on staying in touch. We are going to be going in different directions, but I plan on staying in touch long-term.