This is a big week for Season 8’s third place finalist Danny Gokey. He released his debut album, My Best Days, today. On Thursday, Danny will return to the American Idol stage to perform on the live results show. We caught up with the country crooner this afternoon to find out more about his album, his upcoming tour, his Idol performance, and more.

When asked how he was feeling today, Danny said, “Like a million bucks. This is a dream come true. I’m so happy with everything.” It was less than one year ago that Danny Gokey was an American Idol contestant, and now he has released his debut album. He explains that this past year has been “Busy, busy, busy. I moved to Nashville and I’m watching things fall into place. I’m enjoying life. American Idol was more than just an entertainment show for me. It was a second chance at life.”

Danny has always made it known that one of his missions is to create music that touches people. Of all of his songs on My Best Days, he thinks people will connect with “Tiny Life,” “I Will Not Say Goodbye,” “It’s Only,” and “I Still Believe” the most. He has already been hearing from fans today about these songs in particular.

AmericanIdol.com had the exclusive world premiere of Danny’s music video for “My Best Days Are Ahead Of Me.” He gave us a little back story about how the song and video came to be. Danny said when he went on American Idol, everyone knew his story. He felt at home on Idol, but so many people knew him as the widower. He liked that “My Best Days Are Ahead Of Me” had a good message about enjoying life again. After choosing that as his first single, Danny learned that the writer of the song also lost his wife and took a break from writing until he penned “My Best Days Are Ahead Of Me.” It has now become Danny’s anthem and he said that destiny brought them together. When he read the concept for the video he knew it was the right one, and that’s how the video came to be.

On Mondays, the AI-Insider tracks Idol finalists’ events of the week, and Danny has been on the radio tour circuit throughout the past several weeks, and now he’s embarking on an in-store tour. “I love doing this,” said Danny. “I love meeting the fans and thanking them. I can’t meet everyone, but I like to personally thank all of my fans that I meet.” He said that radio tours, Twitter, and in-store meet-and-greets are ways to get closer to the fans. “I’m doing the groundwork for building long term relationships. Twitter is a great tool for this. I direct messaged a couple hundred fans today to say thanks.”

Danny recently announced that he’ll be joining country duo Sugarland on tour. He said that he’s very excited about this and he’s preparing for the tour amongst everything else right now, although his band is getting used to playing the songs from My Best Days already.

This Thursday, Danny will return to the stage that launched his music career and perform live on the American Idol Top 20 results show. “I’m very excited because I know I’m not going to be judged. I accomplished something on that stage. Idol is what gave me a launch and I met good people there. The producers and the staff are awesome and Idol was a great stepping stone to my future. American Idol doesn’t guarantee success, but it does give you the tools.”

The advice Danny has for the Season 9 semifinalists is to “not let your mind get the best of you. Stay calm and cool. Don’t become so consumed with what people think, and let your mind defeat it. Always know that you will kill it and people at home want you to kill it.”

Danny still keeps in touch with all of the guys from Season 8. “I formed solid relationships with them on the road. I appreciate them and the girls. We text or call each other. It’s nice because we’ve all been through this together.”

MyIdol users DJGokeyGirl and Cupcake1012 wanted to know if Danny plans on writing or co-writing songs on his next album. He said, “Absolutely, and I’m already working on it.” Danny didn’t have time to write on My Best Days since they put this album out quickly. Shanerd and PJGvet asked who Danny would want to collaborate with. He mentioned Brian McKnight and Gary LeVox of the Rascal Flatts being two of the artists he’d love to work with.

To all of Danny’s fans he says, “Thank you. I love you and appreciate all that you do for me. I get caught up because there’s one of me and lots of you so I can’t personally thank you all, but I hope my music connects with you and it’s a sign of appreciation for you.”

Don’t forget to watch American Idol on Thursday at 8/7c to see Danny perform. While you’re waiting, view our Danny Gokey photo gallery.