For “American Idol” viewers, it has been just a few days since 17-year-old Brant McCollough of Samson, Ala., was confirmed as one of seven Alabama competitors (so far) on their way to the show’s Hollywood Round.

McCollough has had a little longer to get used to the idea. His audition process started with an online session way back in August, before he moved on to live auditions in Tuskegee, home of “Idol” judge Lionel Richie. Viewers saw just a snippet of that session in the episode that aired March 24. The last audition episode of the season, it saw McCollough and three other Alabama singers get their Golden Tickets.

Starting at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 31, viewers will begin to see how the Alabama contingent fares in Hollywood. Over the course of back-to-back episodes on Sunday and Monday, the initial crop of ticketholders will be whittled down to a Top 24.

Speaking to AL.com on Thursday, McCollough wasn’t at liberty to give any spoilers about what’s coming. But he did reveal that at least some of the Alabama contingent have formed a bond.

“It’s crazy,” he said of having Alabama represented by at least seven singers. “Me and my friends Dawson and Triston, they’re on there. Triston was in the first episode, Dawson was on the second. We call ourselves the Bama Boys. We’re the only guys from Alabama on there.”

It makes perfect sense McCollough would find common ground with Triston Harper of McIntosh and Dawson Slade of Moulton, given they’re all from Alabama, all of high school age and all being swept up in the “American Idol” tornado. Maybe upcoming episodes will give a glimpse of that support group in action.

For McCollough, the “Idol” ride builds on a love of music going back at least to age eight, when he started playing guitar. He’s a junior at Kinston High School; Kinston, like his hometown, is west of Dothan and not far north of the Florida Panhandle. He plays quarterback and outside linebacker for the Kinston Bulldogs.

He started performing in public about a year and a half to two years ago. He said that experience did a lot to help him overcome the nervousness that comes with an “Idol” audition.

“It calms your nerves a little bit more,” he said. “It makes you realize, I guess, if you’re good or not. Because they throw those tips in and all that if they’re really digging it. I don’t know really how to explain it. It makes you more confident and all that, but it makes you less nervous.”

Still, he said, his nerves were “through the roof” at the audition.

Even so, he went for broke with his song choice: Christ Stapleton’s “Fire Away.”

“It’s just a song that I like and it kind of shows my range, I feel like,” he said. “When he does the ‘fire away’ part, it’s, it’s kind of a higher part, but you can hear in the video my voice is actually like cracking, I was so shaky.”

Taking on the challenging song seems to have paid off. Luke Bryan, who always seems to be thinking about how he’d coach the auditioners, told him, “You’ve really got something. And you’re really going to have something.”

Viewers will find out soon. And hopefully McCollough still has come confidence in the bank, because Sunday’s episode will pitch this year’s crop of aspiring stars into something called the Idol Arena. It’s a new twist, and the show’s producers have said we’re about to see “the biggest cut in ‘Idol’ history.”

“American Idol” airs Sundays and Mondays at 7 p.m. Central time on ABC. Episodes can be streamed the next day on Hulu.