Lucas: Bluffton 'Idol' contestant planning to be himself as gets ready to go to Hollywood
School was very different for 16-year-old-year Lee Jean on Thursday.
If the students and faculty at Bluffton High School, where Jean is a junior, didn't know his name before then, they most certainly do now.
On Wednesday night's debut of the 15th and final season of "American Idol," Jean appeared before music giants Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr.
Wearing short pants and baseball cap turned backwards, Jean -- who by the way pronounces his name like "John" and in the French manner with a soft 'J' -- sang Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" while strumming a guitar.
It was a nerve-wracking moment, as great reality TV often is, but after some light banter with the judges -- Lopez called him 'cute' and Connick said he needed to work on his singing -- Jean walked out the door with his golden ticket to Hollywood.
So what was going through his mind as he realized he'd made it through?
"I think you can see it in my audition but... my legs gave out," he said, laughing.
Jean spoke briefly by phone Friday morning about the audition which he called "an insane experience."
"...It was just an absolute flutter of a million emotions," he said. "I couldn't even handle it."
While Jean was excited and awed to go before the celebrity judges, he also exuded a sort of approachable humility that Lopez seized on immediately.
"There's an ease about your talent," she said. "And I love the humility."
It's something the young singer and budding musician said he gets from his family -- Jean has four brothers, two sisters and a niece. But the staying grounded part comes especially from his mom and dad.
"They just say be humble and be yourself on TV," he said. "I think my mom is more excited than I am."
The teen's family is never far from his mind.
In 2012, the family went through a devastating loss when Jean's older brother, DJ, was killed in a car accident.
"Us being as close as we were -- it just hit me right in the heart," he said on his audition tape. "I kind of felt like I lost part of myself."
Even the song he selected, whose lyrics include the line "Keep careful watch of my brothers' souls" was chosen, he said, in part with DJ in mind.
"It has had a lot of meaning for me from the beginning," he said on Friday.
Now that he's made his big TV debut, Jean plans to continue being himself as he prepares for the show's inevitable trip to Hollywood and the possible elimination process.
"Ever since I started performing, I've wanted to do something like this," he said.
And so how did everyone react the next day at school?
"Almost everyone in the school watched it," he said, laughing. "Pretty much everyone watched...and everyone has been so supportive."
Follow reporter Mindy Lucas on Twitter at twitter.com/MindyatIPBG.
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This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Lucas: Bluffton 'Idol' contestant planning to be himself as gets ready to go to Hollywood."