Phil Stacey photo courtesy of Lyric Street Records.

He took a job in a recording studio to help with bills and to keep his focus on music, learning to produce independent projects, something he still enjoys. "I could really be a tech guy," he says, "but I knew I had to write and sing, to share my own music with the world."

During his time in college, Phil not only fine-tuned his music skills but was exposed to and began appreciating a variety of musical styles, learning to infuse these sounds into this country and gospel roots.

After a freshman-year trip to China with the Lee Singers, he returned to Kansas for the summer and met the best friend of his friend's girlfriend. "Her name was Kendra, and I went home that night and told my dad I was going to marry her," he says. Five months later, in December 1998, he did just that. Kendra also enrolled at Lee and became a supportive and stabilizing influence in Phil's life.

"There were a couple of times in the middle of the college experience when I almost dropped out to become involved in the music industry," Phil says, "but Kendra stopped me. She said, 'I married you when you were a college student and I'm going to be married to a college graduate.'" She was the driving force that led him to finish college and earn his diploma.

After graduating college the couple moved to Denver, where he spent time as a music minister, but he began to wonder about his ultimate direction.

"I thought about getting a master's degree in education so I could teach music," he says, "but it wasn't where my passion was. My passion was in performing."

Then, September 11, 2001, galvanized the country.

"I wanted to support the effort against terror," he says simply. "I was always proud of my dad, who was a veteran and fought in Vietnam." His brother told him he might be able to use his musical talents in the military, which sealed the deal.

He was in boot camp when Kendra had their first child--yes, he missed that birth too--and after basic training they moved to Virginia, and then to Jacksonville, Florida, where he is remembered both as a musician and as a minister.

While stationed in Jacksonville, FL as lead singer of the Navy Band Southeast, he drew on his extensive musical repertoire, performing music by Garth Brooks, George Strait, Tim McGraw, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Marvin Gaye, James Taylor and Paul McCartney, a rounding out of tastes that served him well when he finally hit "Idol." Then, with Country Week, it all came full circle.

"Randy said, 'Dude, you're gonna have a big career in country,' and that was the night even Simon agreed," he says. "The next week I got to do a Garth Brooks song, and they were really positive again. I said, 'Thank God, because this is me. I'm finally getting to do something I love to do.'"

After the 55-city "Idol" tour wrapped in September 2007 and the completion of his 4-year commitment to the U.S. Navy, Phil received his honorable discharge and immediately re-enlisted in the Naval Reserves.

With the Navy's full support of his musical career, Phil moved his family to Nashville, TN and began working with the same management company that had initially expressed interest in him in high school. Phil then signed with Lyric Street Records and began working on his debut CD with producer Wayne Kirkpatrick, whose work with Little Big Town, among others, he admired.

"He comes from the same kind of place that I do," says Phil. "Some of his work reminds me of our family reunions, where we all grab our instruments and just start singing. Wayne makes great, organic music."

The music they recorded will give listeners a look at a man who comes into his own with a hard-won maturity and self-knowledge.

"I know what I stand for," he says. "My life revolves around my family and my music. I love being active in my church and I was proud during "Idol" to represent the Navy and just kind of be a unifying factor for Americans."

He is, as you might expect, a man doing music for more than selfish reasons.

"I feel my job as a singer," he says, "is part of my job as a human being. I'm supposed to be touching other people's lives, doing the best I can to be a positive force in the world."

And there is no doubt that as an artist and as a person, he will be a great addition to the music world.