Season 11 American Idol champ Phillip Phillips, who stopped by MIX 105.1 last week to meet fans and perform his hit single, “Home,” admitted that two Idol contestants from the past served as prime inspiration for his own Idol journey. Ironically, neither of those contestants won the competition.

“You know Daughtry, he really brought some rock to the scene, and I thought that was really good,” said Phillips.”He didn’t even win and he was very successful, so I thought that was really cool.”

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But his biggest influence appeared to be Casey Abrams, the eccentric underdog of the the show’s tenth season.

“And then I saw Casey Abrams in season 10. You know I really respect those kind of artists that are very different and not scared to show it, and he’s really an amazing musician and I really respected him for that. He really gave me an idea to even try to audition. Me and him are pretty tight. We’re not best friends,” he chuckled, “but we try to keep in touch.”

Abrams’ no-holds-barred brand of performance style seemed to truly motivate Phillips.

“He’s one of the biggest inspirations honestly of why I wanted to try out because he played the bass. You know nobody can play the bass like that and get away with it. I thought that was really cool. I just went up there and  didn’t think I was going to do anything spectacular and just kind of got blessed I guess,” Phillips concluded.