INTERVIEW: Trent Harmon On 'There's A Girl' & 'American Idol'

iHeartRadio world premieres songs from your favorite artists all the time, but it's very rare that we actually get to debut it for a musician completely LIVE on the radio, and get to be there with them for the occasion -- until now. On June 23rd, 2016, we were able to do something for an artist that we've never done before. We premiered Trent Harmon's new song "There's A Girl" across iHeartMedia Country stations, and got to record the milestone for the final "American Idol" winner, live streaming it on our iHeartCountry Facebook page for all of his fans to experience with him.

Following Trent's official debut of "There's A Girl," we got to talk to him about the inspiration behind the lyrics of the new song, what his music career has been like after becoming the winner of the final season of "American Idol," what lessons he has learned so far from being on the show and winning, who his musical heroes are, and what's coming next from the rising Country star during an exclusive interview.

[Buy "There's A Girl" on iTunes]

Early life music experiences and inspirations

Trent got his start in music by singing in church, because according to the Mississippi native, "you start singing in church whether you want to or not." The singer says his musical heroes include Elvis Presley, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Vince Gill, and George Strait. As he continued with music through school, and actually sang worship music through college in Arkansas, at University of Arkansas-Monticello. But it wasn't until he was in college that he realized that if he worked hard enough, he could make music a full-time career. Having already learned how to play the piano, he recalled thinking, "If I really practice, and get to where I can play guitar, and seem well enough to get people to turn their head at a bar or at a restaurant, or in 2016 put their phone down. If I can sing well enough to get them to put the phone down and get some stuff on YouTube, maybe I could just make somewhat of a career of this."

On the success of his new single

Fast forward to 2016, and Trent won the fifteenth and final season of "American Idol." His coronation song, "Falling" was co-written by AI judge and Country star Keith Urban, along with Dallas Davidson and Brett James, but now, Trent has his own single he co-wrote, "There's A Girl," with Jimmy Robbins and Laura Veltz. The single debuted across iHeartMedia Country stations, and we captured it all via Facebook Live.

On hearing "There's A Girl" on the radio for the first time while being live streamed, Trent tells us, "You do all of these things for that moment. I just got to have that moment. Everybody has it, like, when they're in their car driving somewhere, they're at home with their parents, but I got to have it with all of my supporters. So that means tenfold more to me."

On the inspiration behind the lyrics of "There's A Girl"

Speaking of "There's A Girl," the song is based on a true story, but was originally more melancholy than the final version you can listen to today. And does the girl in "There's A Girl" know that the song is about her? Trent tells us that she should!

"I haven't specifically told her, but yeah, she should know. I mean, I haven't driven 600 miles for too many people. I drove from my college, which was in-state, it was out of state to an in-state college. So I had told her mom to contact her and say, 'Hey, meet me at X place.' So she thought she was going to walk in for a dinner with her mom and when she got there, it was going to be me. Except when she walked in, she had her boyfriend number two, and it was just kind of this awkward thing. And I thought, 'You know what? We got to write a song about this.' So we sat down to write and about half way through the writing process I was like, 'This is too morbid. This is too sad. Let's write a happy song.' I was like, 'Okay, I have done the rest of this stuff in like a loving way.' Whether it worked out or not, I did do all that stuff. I did wash my truck, I did learn how to play guitar for a girl. So I was really glad that it started off kind of as like, 'Well, it's not really a happy story,' and then it ended up being happy. We couldn't keep it from being a fun song."

So what has life been like for Trent after winning the last season ever of "American Idol"? He tells us, aside from his iHeartRadio premiere, he's been shooting music videos, going on radio tour across the country, giving interviews, and he's been asked by fans to take pictures with him on the street. "I try to think of my supporters as friends that I haven't met yet." He adds, " if they want a picture of me then why not take it?"

On what he learned from being on "American Idol"

The first thought that came to Trent's mind as soon as Ryan Seacrest announced he had won "American Idol," was "Thank you, Jesus." Harmon explains that after years of doing gigs, either for free or for every little money, he "finally got the return on that investment that [he's] put in for the last five years." And Trent explains that one of the biggest lessons he learned from being on the competitve singing show is that to make it in the music business, you have to be very tough.

"A year ago this time, I remember what I was doing, I remember where I was, and I thought I was pretty tough. I was like, 'Man, I could go do a show like that and probably hang until the very end.' And I remember the day, it was a Sunday in February, and I realized I was not tough enough. I don't know if it was mentally, or just physically, or what it was, but I remember thinking, 'Man, you better put your big boy pants on because you can't hang with the way you're treating this right now.' And I really kicked it to the next notch. I realized that I wasn't tough enough, and how tough you have to be to last in this game. You have to be tough, really tough."

On what it's like to be a contestant on "American Idol"

Fun fact about what's like to actually be on "American Idol': Trent says that other than actually filming the show, a lot of time was spent in his hotel, which he jokingly describes as a minimum security prison. So what do you do with all of that time in the hotel? For Trent, he likes to stay in shape. However, there was no gym at his hotel. So, in order to get his fitness on, he ran around his hotel room.

"We didn't have a gym in the hotel that we stayed at during the show and we weren't really supposed to go out and about, just to keep things from happening while we weren't on set. I run every day and -- I said this is going to be weird so don't judge me -- I would run in the room. Now, we had a pretty big room. It was a 3 or 4 room suite, but I drove my roommate crazy doing that. So I would turn on a movie and I would run in place in the room every night. I know that's super weird, but that's what I would do to keep from going crazy, and to stay in shape at the same time. I would just run in place, I'd get my Sean T on and take off."

If you're into Trent's new single, just know, there's a lot more in store from the singer this year. He tells us the same songwriters he co-wrote "There's A Girl" with -- Jimmy Robbins and Laura Veltz -- he's already written a few more songs with. "They're really good songs too," he tells us. Other than that, Trent is traveling across the country on a radio tour, jumping in the studio any chance he gets -- and the end goal? An album, which he tells us he hopes to release this fall.

Photos: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio