Tami Gosnell
HOW YOU KNOW HER This Colorado pedi-cab driver jokingly offered to take the judges on an uphill ride before knocking their socks off with a gritty, soulful performance of the Allman Brothers' ''Whipping Post'' that left Simon declaring she was ''like someone who would've been a big star in the '60s.''
WHAT YOU DIDN'T SEE Unfortunately, Tami's final Hollywood number, Rod Stewart's ''You're in My Heart,'' and her group performance of ''Be My Baby'' — with Minneapolis standout Sarah Krueger and semifinalists Melinda Doolittle and Nicole Tranquillo — got left on the cutting-room floor. But Gosnell says she's not surprised Doolittle is among the season 6 front-runners: ''We spent 12 hours singing in a group, and she melted me a couple times. She's got the personality. I text-messaged her after her performance [of 'My Funny Valentine'] last week, and she texted me back! I figured she had 700 messages!''
HOW SHE'D RATE HER ''IDOL'' JOURNEY ''I thought Simon was going to give me hell for the way I looked. I've got a lip ring, and I'm not a fingernail-painting kind of girl,'' says Gosnell. ''I had no idea they would be so nice to me.'' And while Gosnell still has some frustrations that she didn't crack the top 24 — ''I should've kept those naked photos on my website,'' she cracks — she says she wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
WHERE YOU CAN FIND HER NEXT Gosnell says she's hoping to parlay the momentum from her Idol exposure, including the more than 300,000 hits on her official website since her audition aired, into a record deal and a national tour.
