15-year-old Triston Harper made an impression in “American Idol’s” 2024 premiere. Given the assured nature of his voice and demeanor, maybe it should come as no surprise that he knows exactly when and how country music made an impression on him.

“I was about 10,” said Harper, who’s from McIntosh, Alabama. “And my granddaddy had called me into his living room. He called me into the living room and he said, ‘Son, I want to show you a song, I sung a long time ago.’ And I said, ‘All right,’ and he put on a Johnny Cash song, ‘I Was There When It Happened,’ one of the first songs that Johnny Cash ever recorded. And I was hooked. I was hooked on the way Johnny Cash told the story while he was singing it. And I said, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to be able to sing and tell the story at the same time.’”

(Note: Jimmie Davis released the first recorded version of the Fern Jones tune in 1955; just a couple of years later it was on Cash’s very first album, alongside classics such as “I Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison Blues.” While it’s not fully a story-song in the sense of “A Boy Named Sue” or “One Piece at a Time,” it definitely shows Cash’s powerful ability to inhabit a character.)

Harper said kin on the other side of his family weighed in a little later with another heavy influence, when he was visiting them in Arkansas.

“My other granny from my dad’s side and showed me a man by the name of Elvis Presley,” said Harper. “And that’s where I got in from the storytelling country to the charisma and learning how to win over a crowd. So it made me want to be able to tell a story and sing, but also get the crowd a little rowdied up at the same time.”

That led to a magic moment in 2021, when Triston created a viral stir. A brief clip of him kicking back at Simon Middle School in Conway, Arkansas, strumming Presley’s “That’s All Right” while wearing a suit, created a bit of a stir. The funny thing about it is that it wasn’t a performance as such: It wasn’t a talent show or anything like that, it was just a brief clip that gave a sense of a rare sense of presence and self-confidence.

“That was one of the best days of my life,” said Harper. “They had free dress. You know, down in Bama, you have a strict dress code and in Arkansas, you don’t have a dress code, they would let you wherever they want to wear. So ‘I said I’m gonna wear this today. I’m going all out, I’m gonna stick out.’ And I wore that suit and brand new cowboy boots and, you know, COVID and everything was still going around a little bit, so I had my Arkansas mask on. And I grabbed that guitar when they asked me to sing a song and I sung it for him and that clip was not but 42 seconds long, but when they posted it, it, it had over 20-something-thousand views over the school page.”

His tastes have broadened a little over the years. “I play a lot of Morgan Wallen songs and Luke Combs and Luke Bryan, a lot of that type of country. And then if you go, not too far old but back in the ‘90s, I do a lot of Alan Jackson, George Strait and Willie Nelson, stuff like that.”

Harper said he hasn’t been a regular “Idol” watcher over the years, but in 2023 his eye was caught by the rise of eventual winner Ian Tongi. That sparked something.

“That made me start back watching ‘American Idol,’ he said. And I went for it. You know, I was in band and I heard a voice say, ‘You take a step towards me and, and I’ll take two towards you.’ And I said, ‘All right, that’s how I’ll do it.’ So I wound up auditioning.

The first round, in August, was an online audition that he struggled with. “Every time I tried to sing, my phone would die,” he said. Finally, with his brother T.J. holding the charger cord in place, he was able to nail a rendition of “Hope,” an original song.

Next was a round in Tuskegee as Alabama-born legend Lionel Richie visited his hometown with fellow “Idol” judges Katy Perry and Luke Bryan. There was some pressure, to put it mildly.

“We was in a holding room, I would say about 20 different people. And, you know, they, some of them would go up and get it and some of them would come down and not get it. And I was scared because when it got back to me, I was the last one, I was like, ‘Oh God.’”

As seen in the season premiere, Harper impressed all three judges, particularly Richie, and snagged a coveted golden ticket to the show’s Hollywood round. It’s probably a good thing they didn’t start by asking how well he knew them.

“I grew up knowing all three of them, but you know, I’ve always been a country boy so I know Luke Bryan,” he said. “He’s the main one. I know Katy Perry because of my mama and I know a little bit of Lionel Richie because of my grandparents.”

Since then, the weight of it has sunken in a bit.

“It feels amazing that I got to audition in the place where the Lionel Richie grew up,” said Harper, “And me getting to go there and just me getting to see him and in general, I wouldn’t have cared if I wouldn’t have made it, as long as I was able to get to see them people I really look up to in the music industry.”

One interesting facet of Harper’s appearance is that it gave the nation a rare glimpse of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, a tribal community based in Mobile and Washington counties. While recognized by the state, the MOWA people have not received federal recognition, which they have sought for decades.

“That was really something that I got to give my people, the MOWA Choctaw tribe. You know, we, we’ve never been recognized. So I thought that was so cool, that I got to see me and my people on national television all over the world.”

Harper wasn’t at liberty to reveal any spoilers about what comes next in his “American Idol” journey. But he said that win or lose, he hopes an uplifting message comes through.

“I just want folks to know that it don’t matter how hard it gets,” he said. “No matter how many problems you have don’t never give up. There’s always that door out of whatever you’re going through.”

“American Idol” airs at 7 p.m. Central time Sundays on ABC. In the Feb. 25 episodes, auditions continue.