Deere Heart

Admit it, ''Survivor'' fans: You cried last week when Rodger exchanged emails with his Kentucky wife. You wept when he got the boot. (Full disclosure: A certain jaded and cynical journalist who didn't shed a tear during ''Titanic'' could barely keep it together while interviewing the latest Outback outcast. But here's what she managed to managed to find out for EW.com.)

Rodger, I think the entire country mourned when you got kicked off.
Well, that's very nice. My whole county where I lived said they were like that too. Actually, people all over have been telling me that. To tell you the truth. New Yorkers have been phenomenal. I'm surprised people were actually rooting for me as much as they seem to have been.

Why is that?
Well, I'm the quiet one. I wasn't the strongest one in the challenges. I wasn't the youngest one out there. I was the oldest. I figured they might have been rooting for some of the younger crowd.

Before you were voted off, did you already know it?
Yeah, Tina had come to me and said, ''Which one of you two needs the money more, you or Elisabeth?'' I found I wasn't quite as good as I'd planned. When I went out there, I thought: Everyone knows it's a game. There's going to be lying and backstabbing. I went in with the intention of doing that. But the longer I was out there I had a harder time doing that. Then to be asked point blank, I couldn't lie about it. Elisabeth is young. I knew she had some sickness in her family. I knew she needed the money.

Was it a little weird when Tina asked you point blank if you needed to win the money?
I sort of respected her for it. She had always been straightforward and honest with me. She hadn't maybe been with Mad Dog early on, but I respected her for coming to me and asking me.

Did you try to save yourself at the last minute?
I had worked on Colby on the same day as Tribal Council. I was sitting right there during that rice fight [between Colby and Keith] and I thought maybe this Ogakor alliance isn't quite as strong as I thought. Later on I was talking to Colby and I told him I'm not ready to leave or call it quits by any means. But I told him, however you decide I'll still shake your hand on the outside.

What did you do after you got kicked off?
We went to the ranch. The thing I wanted most was steak and a baked potato and the next night they had a grill out there cooking. I found out I couldn't eat very much though. I got on a set of scales two days after being voted off and I was down 24 pounds. I went from a size 40 pants to a 36. But my wife kept buying me Ben and Jerry's ice cream and I would chow down on that every night so I've gotten back 17, 18, 19 pounds of it.

If you could do it all over, is there anything you'd do differently?
Not really. Well, just that early on Debb had a feeling she was going to get voted off and she asked me not to vote for her so it wouldn't be unanimous. But I voted for her because I didn't want to be seen as an outsider. I just found out I wasn't very good at lying then. From that point on I was a straight shooter with just about everybody.

Why do you think you and Elisabeth, who is only 23, became so close?
If somebody had told me I was going to make a close friend, I would have said it'll probably be a male, someone my age. If somebody told me it's going to be a girl 30 years younger than me, I'd have told them they were crazy. But Elisabeth always reminded me of my daughter. Me and Elisabeth were thrown into situations together more than any other two people out there. I showed her how to fish. She caught her first fish with me. Every day I would go fishing she would come. We'd be out there two, three, sometimes five hours, so we had a lot of time to talk about everything.

Have you been in touch with her?
Last week. She got engaged on a Friday night and called me Saturday morning to tell me. I spoke to her fiancé on the car phone when she called. My whole family is planning on going to the wedding. My wife and daughter and son in law, we're all going.

Anyone else you're in touch with? I keep in touch with Mike quite a bit and me and Tina email too.

Are you planning on doing any endorsements?
I would do some of that endorsement thing and do some speaking engagements. You know my green hat? You know what that is? Well, I wouldn't mind doing some of that for John Deere. I wasn't able to keep the emblem on out there. They said wear what you normally wear and when I'm on the farm I wear that.

Have the tabloids managed to find any scandals about you?
They nosed around my hometown. They were out at the courthouse, the local newspaper, the sheriff's. Luckily they left town empty handed. I've been in the Star and the National Enquirer. You know you've made it when you're in those.

Are people from your hometown treating you differently now?
A lot are and a lot aren't. One girl I went all through grade school and high school with, she still lives fairly close. She asked me for my autograph. I said, ''Louise, why do you want my autograph? I've known you for 50 years.'' I find that stuff strange. I still go to the same restaurant and have a bowl of oats with the same group of farmers every morning. If an opportunity comes up because of this, I will look at it but I won't leave Kentucky. I'm satisfied with my lifestyle. There's worse things in life than not winning that million dollars.