Tim Urban was the next contestant to be eliminated from “American Idol” during this week’s special “Idol Gives Back” episode. The 20-year-old from Duncanville, TX, shared his thoughts in a recent conference call. Excerpts are below.

Q:  Tim, last year we heard a lot about the religious backgrounds of some of the people, Chris and Danny and Michael, and how that shaped them.  But you have an extensive religious background, too, and if you could elaborate a little bit more about that.  Especially some of the stuff—you were home schooled and you’ve never done liquor and that you were a relief worker overseas – (how has) religion shaped you as a singer and a person?

Urban:  My personal belief has really shaped pretty much every aspect of my life.  I grew up in a very Christian home, and that set of morals and just that upbringing has shaped me musically, has shaped me as a person, and just, I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to explain because it’s pretty much who I am.  So it’s not just a part of my life.  That’s why it’s kind of hard to explain it, because it’s just who I am.

Q: Okay, well maybe you can elaborate a little bit more about your relief work then?

Urban: I was in South Africa in Swaziland.  It was last summer or two summers ago, and I was there on a relief trip taking nutritional products to some orphanages there.  I was there for, I believe it was 10 days, and I visited around 20-some orphanages. 

That was a really amazing and kind of gut-wrenching experience.  But yeah, that’s one of the reasons that I was excited about Idol Gives Back, because I had the opportunity to experience that first hand and to see that being on the show is helping those situations.  It’s really cool.

Q: What were your feelings about VoteForTheWorst, which had you as their favorite contestant (for) nine straight weeks.

Urban: I really have no comment about that Website.  I’m not excited that I was on their Website.  I think that it’s really not anything that anybody should be proud of.  I really didn’t like being on there, and basically I was working my hardest to get off of it.  Yes, I’m actually kind of sad that I was on that Website at all.

Q: A week or two ago Simon complimented you on your attitude in the competition, that you took everything positively, that you applied everything that they’d said.  What did it mean to you that they recognized not only how you grew as a performer along the way, but that they also appreciated the way that you handled yourself and came across?

Urban: That’s actually something that was my goal on the show.  It was not just to improve as an artist, but to just be a very good contestant, and to take what everybody was saying … and work at it and improve, but also, not to really complain or to talk back.  Just take the criticism and work from it.  It was cool to get that recognition about that.  It’s something that I’m very proud of.

Q: Did you and Simon make amends a few weeks ago, because it seemed like all of a sudden he was very nice to you.

Urban: You know, it was funny.  Simon and I never had a problem.  I actually didn’t have a problem with Simon’s critiques.  I thought he was just speaking his mind and I took that and tried to use it and apply it.  It was cool that he recognized that I was working towards that stuff, and that was really encouraging, but we never had a problem to begin with.

Q: We had talked earlier about the possibility of you doing Disney Channel, and now there’s been some suggestions that maybe Fox might be interested, or some people are suggesting you would be a good fit for “Glee.”  Are you thinking music for your future, or the possibility of TV, or what are you thinking for your future?

Urban: You know, I would love to do music.  I would love to pursue that, and I’m hoping that that door opens up, but I also have always had a desire to act, and to just be in that side of the entertainment industry, as well.  So I would be really excited if I got the opportunity to do that, as well.  I’m just waiting to see what happens, but I’m open to any of that at this point.  I’m really just excited about the whole thing.

Q: They talked so much about your smile this season, and it is fantastic.  I want to know if you have gotten any sponsors from like Colgate or any toothpaste companies wanting to talk to you?

Urban: At this point I haven’t, but who knows?  It would be kind of entertaining.  I’d love to do that in the future; that would be a lot of fun.  I haven’t at this point, but you never know.

Q: Have you seen some of the things that have been going on on Twitter, and are you surprised about all this giant support for you?  People are crazy about you, talking about you all the time, screaming episodes.  Were you shocked?

Urban: Yes.  I haven’t seen that much of it, just because of how crazy it’s been, but the little bit that I’ve caught; it’s so amazing to me.  Because you’re in this little (American Idol) bubble, you almost lose sight of how big the show is.  So, it’s really incredible to see that kind of support.  It’s really encouraging, too.

Q: How would you respond to the critics who I’ve seen on Twitter who say you only remained on American Idol because of your charisma, your charming smile, and your sexual appeal, and so forth?  How would you respond to that?

Urban: Oh, wow.  I don’t think that I would respond to that.  It seems that people just like to take somebody and then find something that they don’t like about them and talk about it.  I get that.  It’s part of dealing with the industry. It’s part of being in the spotlight.  So, people are going to say that, but people are going to say that about pretty much anybody.  You’ll find people that don’t like any artist out there, and so you have to deal with it, shrug it off.  I don’t perform for the people who don’t like me, I perform for the people who want me to be onstage, so those are the people that I try to worry about.

Q: I wanted to kind of follow up on the last question (about) the intense scrutiny that you got on your looks, particularly about the shirtless photo.  Normally we see that kind of thing happening with women, and it was a shock, I think, for a lot of people to see how much it was with you as a male contestant.  How did you react to all that?

Urban: I kind of knew it would come out eventually.  I didn’t really expect it to be as big as it was, because it kind of blew up really fast.  That was kind of a little crazy, but I just took it in stride.  It’s part of the show, everybody is looking for something in the back story.  Everybody is looking for an extra story, so it’s just one of the stories that people decided to run with.  I just try not to worry about it too much.

Q: Do you think it helped or hindered you?

Urban: Kind of both.  I definitely heard that it helped, but then there are also people who might see that and not take me seriously, just because of that type of thing.  I don’t know; I think it probably helped more than it hurt, but I don’t really know for sure.

Q: What was your mindset heading into last night’s result show?  Were you confident?  Did you think you were going to stick around to the top six?

Urban: You know, it’s kind of one of those things where I knew from the judges’ comments that it was possible that I’d be in the bottom three.  It was very possible I could go home.  But I also went back and watched my performance from Tuesday night, and I was fine with it.  It was a performance that I decided that if I did go home I wouldn’t look back and be really upset about the performance.  My mindset was you never know what’s going to happen, but that I was excited for how far I had gotten.  That I was really proud of how everything had gone up to that point, and so if I did go home, Idol Gives Back, and being a part of that, it kind of lightens the blow a little bit.

Q: A couple things about last night.  You had to wait so long to find out.  Was that really difficult, and do you wish you would have been able to sing one last song?

Urban: Well, the wait wasn’t really that hard, just because it was such an awesome show.  You almost lost that it was a results show at times, just because of how amazing the performances were, and how touching the videos were, and how it was such a great experience.  For me, I almost lost sight of the fact it was a results show.

I was a little sad I didn’t get to sing one last time on that stage, but it’s part of it.  You don’t always get what you want.  I’ll get to come back for the finale, and hopefully get to perform on that stage again.  It’s a little bittersweet, but overall it’s all right.

Q: Because you’re a performer and you’re so gracious when you’re onstage, and you come from this very close, large-knit family; would you consider or have you thought about doing like a family-kind of act?  An Osmond kind of thing, or are your siblings performers, also?

Urban: Actually, I have thought about that, and I have done a little bit of that at home.  My family is actually really musically talented.  One of my younger sisters, she plays the piano and sings.  She has a beautiful voice.  Another younger sister also plays the piano, and she sings a little bit, as well.  And one of my younger brothers, he play a little jimbay, a little African drum, and we’ve done small shows and we’ve done stuff like that.  It’d be cool.  I’d love to do that.  I don’t know if that’s what they want to do with the rest of their lives, but that’s something that I’d definitely love to be able to do in the future.

Q: I just wanted to follow up when you talk about your big family.  How many brothers and sisters do you have, and where are you in the order, and how does that shape you?

Urban: Well, there are ten of us total.  There are five boys, five girls.  I’m number six.  I’m the third boy, so I’m just right in the middle of everything.  It’s been a really, really unique upbringing because of that.  I was home-schooled, as well, so we’re all really, really close.

I don’t know, being the middle child, you look up to your older siblings, but then you’re also looked up to by your younger, so it’s a very interesting place to be.   But our family is really supportive and really encouraging, so I’ve really been blessed with the family that I’ve had, and just the encouragement and support they’ve been.  I think that’s really shaped me, and it’s probably one of the reasons I have a positive outlook is just that I know that family support is there, and I know that regardless, I’ll always have that love and that appreciation and that support from them.