Jack Blocker is ready to move forward after his turn on American Idol season 22.
“Idol is go, go, go. It’s exhausting and coming off of it feels like you want to break,” Blocker, 25, exclusively told Us Weekly at CMA Fest in Nashville on Saturday, June 8. “Doing something like this, it’s like, ‘[I] gotta do it. Let’s keep going, man. This is awesome.’”
Blocker, a graphic designer from Dallas, finished in second place during the season 22 finale last month and he had no clue that he would make it as far as he did.
“Once we got to L.A. and the shows were live, [judge Katy Perry] come up after a show and she’d kind of gimme a look, like, ‘What are you doing?’” Blocker recalled on Saturday. “And then at the end, it’s like, ‘Are you seriously?’ Like, she came up to me and she was like, ‘What happens if you win this thing?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know. I have no idea. I haven’t gotten that far yet.’”
Blocker ultimately lost the competition to Abi Carter but has remained tight with Perry, 39.
“We’re close now. She’s a good friend and it’s definitely not what I was expecting when I left the room for the first time,” Blocker said. “Didn’t feel like we left on the right foot.”
Blocker, who appreciated Perry’s “confidence” in his journey as an artist, is ready to pursue music full-time.
“It’s tough in Nashville ’cause you watch people climb the charts and you’re like, ‘I want that to be me. Should I be doing something that they’re doing?’” Blocker told Us. “And over and over [the judges are] just like, ‘Hey, do what you do well [and] do what makes you unique — even if it’s weird facial expressions by the end of it, but, just lean into that and be you as an artist.’ I’ve just taken that and ran with it for the show [and] really believed it more than ever.”
Blocker got to perform at CMA Fest for the first time this weekend, marveling over the “cool” experience.
“I mean, the songs I wrote I wasn’t really ever anticipating singing them for, for people. I wrote ’em for soul healing, for the most part, Blocker told Us. “So getting to watch people sing them back [to me during shows] and really connect with the words and have them apply to their own life, that’s why you do it. It’s … just reinvigorating to make me want to keep going.”
With reporting by Jeremy Parsons
