To describe Aaron Walpole, it's best to steal a line from Jake Gold: "The big man's got rhythm." Whether he's doing musicals on stage or singing on a nationally-televised show, Walpole is bursting with the stuff and it seems he can't contain it.

Then what do you do to remedy Walpole's chronic state of rhythm? Give him back-to-back weeks on Canadian Idol so that the man can sing his heart out.

For two Tuesdays straight, he had to prove himself to the voting public, first by taking on Blue Rodeo's "Try" then singing Dobie Gray's "Drift Away." Somewhere in between, he had to choke back tears as he professed his love of singing, live to the nation.

Walpole's been on one bumpy ride, full of emotional pit stops and occasional fender benders with the judges, but the 26-year-old won't have it any other way. While the Wild Card proved to be a tough detour to the Top 10, the singer found the experience gratifying.

"I like climactic moments like that. I like everything to build up to a point where it just explodes," he says. "Whether or not it puts me through, this battle of nerves, I enjoy it."

This Sheridan theatre-school graduate knows the business of butterflies in the stomach. He says it's all just part and parcel of performing.

"It's a huge rush and it's an addiction that I've had for a long time that comes with performing," Walpole admits. "You perform and you do a good enough job then people give you that rush."

He also says singing in back-to-back weeks didn't allow for much time to get nervous. Though he felt down about missing the Top 10 cut at first, preparing for his final shot in the Wild Card round got him hyped up again.

"Everything just turned around," he says. "I take all of my negatives in life and I try to turn them around as positive, because if you don't you just bury yourself."

With that obstacle out of the way, Walpole is now gearing up for more heated competition in the Top 10, in which he'll be going head to head with some competitors nearly 10 years his junior.

But not to worry, Walpole plans to bring all of his life and music experience with him to the stage.

"I've been working on every single type of music for as long as I can remember, from opera right through to screaming-rock, AC/DC style," he says.

"I'm going to bring me into it and it'll change with the themes. I think I'll do alright with the different themes that we have."

Eye on Idol