JACKSON, Miss. >>  Brandon country rocker Skylar Laine says that it was sad at first, being voted off "American Idol," but she’s looking forward to seeing folks at home.

She had chosen what she’d sing next week — Steve Miller’s Rock’n Me and the Broadway tune On My Own, from the musical Les Miserables — when she learned Thursday that she Hollie Cavanagh, from McKinney, Texas, were in the bottom two.

"I just remember saying, ‘I’m going home.’ I even told Hollie that. I can’t really explain why. I just had a feeling," she told The Clarion-Ledger in a telephone interview from Hollywood.

"It’s sad right at first," she said. "But to be honest, I’m almost relieved. I’m happy; I really am. I don’t have to deal with picking songs, being judged.

"It was fun. It’s amazing to make the Top 5. And I don’t think I will ever be able to fully thank the people of Mississippi who carried me so far. To think of what everyone did for me is just overwhelming."

She rocked the house with her exit song: Miranda Lambert’s "Gunpowder and Lead." She says she was thinking how much she’d miss everyone on the show, and that she could soon go home and see her family and friends.

Laine says ‘Idol’ has made her more determined on a country music career. "I am so ready to make an album, and sing and write the kind of songs I want to," she said.

Her sister, Blair Harden, said, "It’s amazing anytime someone reaches the Top 5 on American Idol, but when it’s your sister … it’s sorta crazy. But I’ve heard people on the radio and on TV singing for years, and I would say, ‘Skylar can do that.’ And she has."