Rossi (File photo)

LAS VEGAS -- Toronto's Lukas Rossi says he can breathe a major sigh of relief now that he's performed the first Rockstar Supernova concert on New Year's Eve in Sin City.

"It's just a feeling of accomplishment," the 30-year-old singer told the Toronto Sun in a Canadian newspaper exclusive the night after Rockstar Supernova's North American tour launch at The Joint in the Hard Rock Cafe. "It's good to get it under your belt. It's kind of like, 'Well, we went through all this s--t, we can only go up from here,' you know what I'm saying? I think the band gave it 110%. I think we just brought it as best we could, man. And it's going to get better. This is the first show of the tour, so it's taking baby steps."

Rossi, seated on a couch in The Joint's second-floor, candle-lit dressing room of his Rockstar Supernova bandmates -- guitarist Gilby Clarke and bassist Johnny Colt -- sipped on a soda and seemed generally pleased with his opening-night performance, despite some room for improvement. For example, Rossi stopped and restarted the band's show-ending cover of the Rolling Stones' Let's Spend The Night Together because he wanted the crowd's response to be louder. What he didn't realize at the time was that his voice was being drowned out in the mix and the audience couldn't hear him.

"There's glitches here and there," Rossi said. "Hills and valleys, man, and we hit a couple of valleys (Sunday) night, but the best thing about falling down is getting up again and you've got to do it really quickly 'cause everyone's just standing there and you know especially (Sunday) night, just drunk as hell and just wanting to rock 'n' roll. All in all, it was just a f---in' blast."

Rossi said Rockstar Supernova, rounded out by his pal Tommy Lee of Motley Crue on drums, only had about two weeks of rehearsal before the New Year's Eve launch.

The group's next show is Jan. 16 in Hollywood, Fla., so even more rehearsal time is in the cards before they arrive at Massey Hall on Jan. 24.

The North American tour wraps up at the end of February with dates following in Australia and rumours of a more extensive Canadian tour in the spring.

Before Rockstar Supernova's appearance at The Joint, they warmed up with an outdoor, five-song set that was projected above them on a curved overhead screen known as the Fremont Street Experience.

"S--t, I thought I had a big forehead in person dude, you should have seen when my head was up on that s--t," Rossi joked.

Otherwise, Rossi said he wasn't nervous about the first show and that seeing all those Canadian flags waving back at him from the audience on the floor at The Joint was reassuring.

"So cool," he said. "S--t, man, that's where I was raised, man. And they came all this way just to support homeboy, and I'm like, 'F---!' That's like big hugs, you know? Like I went in the front row and this girl gave me like this big leather bracelet that had my name engraved on it, like gold-dust, it's amazing, dude."

So really no opening-night case of nerves? "Everyone's just here to support us," said Rossi, who had plans to head back up to Toronto after the band's second show at The Joint on Monday night. "I'd be a fool to be nervous, you know what I mean? I think I came into myself a few songs into the set 'cause you gotta take a deep breath and step back and be like, 'F---, okay, we're actually here. We're doing this now."

And once the show was over, he was able to celebrate New Year's Eve into the wee hours.

"I never drink before I go on stage, ever, I don't party," he said.

That, of course, all changed when Rossi headed up to Lee's hotel room for the afterparty.

"It was f--in' ridiculous," Rossi said with a laugh. "Tommy brought his f---in' DJ s--t up in his room, we had like a couple hundred people in there, just nuts. Just off the hook. There was like 13 comped rooms because they were all complaining and s--t about the noise."