Phillip Phillips Talks Fear of Failure + Hustling to Finish Debut Album

After winning 'American Idol,' you'd imagine some stars may get a bit of an ego. After all, that's a pretty weighty title.

Phillip Phillips is not one of those stars. In fact, if anything, his victory has terrified him -- but motivated him to do his own thing with his debut, 'The World From the Side of the Moon,' at the same time.

"Man, I'm pretty scared," he admitted to MTV News. "I'm nervous and excited, all these emotions going at once, because it's something that really represents me." He explained, "I wrote everything but two songs -- and, you know, it's kind of nerve-wracking putting yourself out there. But it's also exciting because I want people to hear what I have to offer. I guess it's because I'm new, but, shoot, next album I'll probably be just as scared."

If you didn't love him already, isn't he even more adorable now that you see just how humble he is?

Perhaps part of why he's so on edge is because he rushed to get the album done. The Nov. 19 release date was a bit of a surprise for the southern gentleman. "I had a talk with  Jimmy [Iovine] about the album, because there was mixed communications. Either we were going to get it out next year, like January or February, then it was December, then it was back to January or February, then finally they said, 'We want to get it out November 19,'" he said.

"I was like 'Whoa!' because that was, like, four weeks away," he chuckled. "So I only had three weeks to do the album! So I went in the studio, with Gregg Wattenberg, who's a great guy. We would get tired, man, we'd walk into the studio just looking beat up, but we'd be like 'Man, we're going to do this,'" Phillips continued. "From starting the guitars to mastering in three weeks, it was hectic, but we got it done, and I can't be more proud of it."

What did he reveal about the album? For one, the title, which baffled fans, was all him. "Yeah, I saw the reactions, and it was pretty funny. They were like 'That's a stupid title, it doesn't even mean anything!'" he laughed. "And I'm like 'You have no idea what's even on the album, so how do you know it doesn't mean anything?' Maybe they still don't know what it means, who knows?

"But it represents for me, like, watching myself on this whole past year, how I've grown as a person and an artist," he explained. "I really like the title, I thought it was interesting," he said, before he conceded, "Maybe I'll go with something different the next time around."

As for the music itself, for those who haven't heard it? "I just tried my best not to make it suck." Always a worthy goal, Phil. And if 'Home' is any indication, he succeeded.

Watch Phillip Phillips Talk About His Album Title