Phillip Phillips Talks About Upcoming Surgery, Forgetting to Play the Guitar On-Stage (VIDEO)

American Idol Season 11 champ Phillip Phillips hit up The Tonight Show With Jay Leno last night and opened up about what it was like for him to win the title after a long, arduous struggle with kidney problems.
 
Phillip said that when he was announced as the winner, he didn’t know what to do. “Honestly, I couldn’t believe it,” he told Jay. “My mind was just going everywhere, I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t even want to sing the song or anything I was just so shocked.” When host Ryan Seacrest delivered his guitar so that he could play his coronation single, “Home,” Phillip said he was so confused he’d forgotten how to even play the instrument!

He ended up becoming overcome with emotions mid-way through the final performance, of course, and left the stage to embrace his family instead of continuing on. P2 told Jay that what really hit him in that moment was how hard he and his fellow Top 12 contestants had worked to get there. “It’s a long journey,” he explained. “It’s not as easy as it looks on TV, and you know it kind of started to get to me.”

Nothing’s been more difficult for Phillip, of course, than his health issues. He’s suffered continuously throughout the season with kidney stones and decided to delay surgery in order to finish the competition, but he expects to go under the knife “pretty soon.” The pain, he explained, has “been tough,” and it was even a little difficult for him on the talk show. “But you know, you gotta go after your dream if you want it bad enough,” the singer declared. “I had a lot of great doctors and a lot of great people around me to help push me through and to help get me through.”

With the competition finally over, he’s looking forward to “a lot of fun” on the Idol summer tour!

You can watch the rest of Phillip’s interview on The Tonight Show here.

Source: NBC

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