The freshly minted winner of American Idol has one piece of advice for his would-be Canadian counterparts: Sleep.

"Sleep as much as you can," Taylor Hicks said yesterday, when asked what tips he'd offer to Canadian Idol competitors who make it through the cattle call auditions. The new season of the Canuck star search debuts Monday night on CTV.

"Any time you have that down time, you need to spend it with your feet up and really conserve your energy," Hicks said in a conference call interview from Los Angeles.

"If you don't conserve your energy, it doesn't look good on camera and it affects your performances."

Sleep is something the 29-year-old from Alabama has had little of since he was crowned the new American Idol on Wednesday's finale of the Fox reality show phenomenon.

Though he was heavily favoured to win, Hicks said he took nothing for granted going into the live finale opposite 22-year-old Katharine McPhee, right up to the moment when host Ryan Seacrest read out his name.

"Just don't fall down, don't let your knees buckle," Hicks said of what was running through his mind at that moment. "And be thankful to all the people who have voted for you."

Runner-up McPhee, who spoke to reporters in a separate conference call, said she wasn't nervous about not winning.

"I didn't feel like I had to win in order to be a winner," she said. "I just felt like whatever was meant to happen was going to be OK."

Both Hicks and McPhee will take part in an upcoming American Idol concert tour, and both are signed to record contracts. While there have been suggestions that Hicks' soulful style may not appeal to the usual American Idol CD buyers, "I can guarantee you this, it will be an album with my stamp of approval," he said.

Some other nuggets gleaned from the chat: Hicks is single and enjoying his freedom, though the woman he eventually settles down with will have to be a good cook. (A query about McPhee's love life was cut off with a stern "next question!" from a Fox representative on the line.)

Hicks said he argued -- and continues to argue -- with American Idol stylists over his hair, which started turning grey when Hicks was in college. They suggested he dye it, Hicks refused.

"We've been battling back and forth on it," he said. "I'm not changing myself. I didn't change it when I was 18, I'm not changing it now."

And irascible American Idol judge Simon Cowell has never offered apologies for some of his most ruthless remarks about Hicks. But it doesn't matter, because Hicks got the last laugh.

"I am the American Idol, and ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" he said.