In the year since Kellie Pickler was voted off "American Idol," she said she's had an overwhelming abundance of experiences.

But nothing topped meeting her own idol - Dolly Parton.

"She is just so nice, and everything I hoped she'd be," Pickler, who finished sixth in last year's "Idol," said in a telephone interview from Nashville. "That really motivated me to keep doing what I'm doing. To think that Dolly's had so much success - she's a legend - and I can only hope to follow in her footsteps."

That includes not only singing and on-stage humor, but acting as well. Shortly after she left "Idol" last summer, Pickler signed a development deal with Fox for a TV sitcom in which she would play a naive girl in a small town.

But acting is not immediately on the 20-year-old's radar.

"Obviously, singing is the most important," she said. "I think it's important that I establish myself in one career first before I cross over."

Her "Idol" onstage persona portrayed her as a dumb blonde, and other exposure she's received over the past year has done nothing to downplay the character.

But she won't say how much is the real Kellie Pickler and how much is an act.

"Sometimes it does bother me, but I'm a good sport and I'll play along," she said. "I'm not dumb - I don't think I'm dumb at all. No one is dumb in this industry, or they don't make it.

"I don't take things personally."

Pickler said she's learned a lot over the past year, but hesitated when asked about the biggest lesson she has learned in the past 12 months.

"To just always stay true to who you are," she finally said. "You can't let what your profession is change you and change the person you are because everyone fell in love with the person they saw on 'American Idol,' and that's the person they want you to stay true to."

Like 2005 "Idol" winner Carrie Underwood and a handful of other contestants, Pickler has gone country rather than taking a pop route after the show ended.

"Country music's always been where my heart is," said Pickler, who grew up listening to her grandmother's collection of Parton, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash records. "I just always wanted to be like them. It wasn't hard for me to decide which format I was going to go in."

While the current season of "Idol" pared its contestants from six to four this week, Pickler said she hasn't been paying much attention to the newest version of the show.

"The only time I ever watch TV is if there's a hockey game on," she said.

Pickler is joining Jack Ingram and Taylor Swift as the opening acts for Brad Paisley's tour, which stops.;Sunday night at.;the University of Illinois Assembly Hall, Champaign. The three alternate spots each night, she said, before Paisley closes the show.

Just as the tour started, Pickler experienced vocal cord problems, and she's had to take steroid shots to keep them in shape.

"I'm still trucking," she said. "I've been stressed out about that. I've noticed I haven't been able to hold notes as long and I get winded. I can't not do the tour, so I'm just on steroid packs to get through it."

Speaking after her third show into the Paisley tour, which lasts until late August, she said the shows have been great.

"Just being on the road with Brad, you know you're going to have a great turnout," she said. "You know he's going to pull so many people … and it's so diverse. There's all sorts of people out there. Everyone's there to have a good time, and so far we've all had a ball."

She is on the lookout for Paisley, known among his contemporaries as a practical joker.

"Right before the tour started, everyone kept warning me about Brad and his jokes and to watch my back. I've heard all this stuff he's done to other people, other opening acts," she said. "Taylor and I have got a few things up our sleeve to do this week."

Her debut album, "Small Town Girl," has gone gold. It included Pickler's first hit, "Red High Heels," which she co-wrote.

"The biggest compliment is when I perform the song at shows and people sing along with it," she said. "It's awesome."

The second single, now No. 25 on Billboard's country charts, is "I Wonder," a semi-autobiographical song about a woman's search for her parents. In real life, Pickler's mother abandoned her when she was 2, and her father has been in and out of prison.

Even though "I Wonder" has become a hit, Pickler said she was worried that such a personal song would be so universal.

"I think what it is about the song is that people relate to it," she said. "Country music's about life."

Pickler said she recently got a compliment on the song from someone at a gas station - a man who was adopted and looking for his birth parents.

"In the end, it was kind of the same," she said. "We could relate to it."

David Burke can be reached at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

If you go

WHO: Brad Paisley, with Kellie Pickler, Jack Ingram and Taylor Swift

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 6

WHERE: University of Illinois Assembly Hall, Champaign

TICKETS: $42.75 and $32.75

CALL: 333-5000.