AFTER playing for TV audiences of two million, travelling to London with Kylie Minogue and meeting singer Chris Martin from Coldplay, anyone would be be forgiven for finding it hard to get back to the lacklustre rhythm of ordinary life.
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John Lingard, 26, is back home in Bendigo this week after being knocked out of Channel Nine's hit talent show The Voice.
"It's quite a weird feeling because one day you're hanging out with all these celebrities and you're on TV and then the next day someone’s just given you a parachute and pushed you off the edge," Lingard said.
The last week or so I’ve found it quite stressful thinking about everything.
- John Lingard
He said the enormity of his experience hit him one day during a rehearsal with Minogue but also helped him realise such success was not as "untouchable" as he once thought.
"It makes you realise it's something that isn't so far away, it's a possibility."
Now he faces the challenge of pursuing his career without the platform that national television provides.
He used to have a back-up plan, but has ditched it, citing a comment from a university lecturer that, "if you have a back plan you'll probably fall back on it".
"The last week or so I’ve found it quite stressful thinking about everything," he said.
After resting from the rigours of the show, Lingard plans to go back to playing gigs and song-writing, with hopes of an album in the near future. He said there were "a couple" of Bendigo gigs coming up but couldn't confirm dates or locations.
Despite his success on the show and encouraging comments from music industry giants and TV show judges Joel Maddan, will.i.am, Ricky Martin and Minogue, Lingard still gets nervous before gigs.
He said caring about what his audience thought was part of The Voice experience, and it was difficult at times.
"The general public don’t realise what goes into one of those shows - the complexity behind just that one minute and thirty seconds," he said.
"People can be brutal, if you play a bung note, on social media they’ll let you hear about it."
He was interested to learn from Kylie that she rarely watched her performances back. While in London he discussed with her the strong criticism she received for her Logies performance in April.
"She was just saying, 'what can you do', Australia for her has always been the most negative.
"I respect her a lot for that, she’s got a really thick skin."
Lingard said his own experiences with online comments about his performances had taught him not to read them.
