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Despite elimination Wednesday night, by making the top 10 Chris Sligh of Greenville, S.C., will be invited back for the annual summer "Idol" concert tour.

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Chris Sligh, the curly headed contestant from South Carolina who was voted off "American Idol" this week, said he considered quitting the show two weeks before viewers sent him packing.

"I never came into this wanting to win it," 28-year-old Chris Sligh said Thursday in a telephone interview with The Greenville News. "I made the Top Ten. That was my goal."

Sligh said the reason he didn't quit was because the top 10 contestants participate in an "American Idol" summer tour that comes with a nice payout.

"I wanted to make the tour," he said. "I wanted to be able to make music for my living, so I don't have to work at the marketing company that I was working at. It doesn't matter who is going to place ahead of me. What matters is the fact that I reached the goal that I really wanted to make."

Sligh also talked about his time as a student at the Christian fundamentalist college, Bob Jones University.

"They kicked me out," after he attended a contemporary Christian concert featuring the group 4Him, he said. "It was actually good, because I had been trying to figure out how to leave. My parents had given me the option of going to two colleges, and I chose the less-crazy one, believe it or not."

Still, the son of overseas missionaries said, he has no hard feelings toward the school's leadership. "I don't want to throw them underneath the bus. I respect what they do -- it's just that their sect of Christianity is not really what I want to be associated with."

Sligh attended North Greenville University, another Christian school in the Upstate, after leaving Bob Jones. He's three credits shy of a music degree.

Sligh said he plans to return home to his wife and his church, where hundreds of people gather each week to hear him play his electric guitar and sing as part of services. He also hopes to rest for a few weeks before going on the tour.

"I definitely am looking forward to getting back home and kind of having a normal life for a few weeks," Sligh said.

Sligh will appear on the show's May 24th finale and hopes to be even slimmer than the 30 pounds he lost during his time on the show.

"I tried out on a whim for 'American Idol' back six months ago, seven months ago, and here I am No. 10 out of 100 and something thousand people that tried out," Sligh said. "That's an amazing, amazing accomplishment that I feel I should be very, very proud of. I'm looking forward to seeing what doors open up from here on out."