First off, Carrie Underwood’s co-headlining tour with Keith Urban comes to the Gwinnett Arena. Presale starts today and ends Monday at 10 p.m. Given the popularity of the pair, both concerts will likely sell out. The password was not created by me but it just happens to be HOHOHO, according to an email I got. You also may have to pay some sort of membership fee to be in either fan club. Check out the details here. or here.

Tickets are $49.50 to $75. Tickets go onsale to the general public Dec. 21.

Second, tmz.com has procured a purported sex tape with Jessica Sierra. Need I say more?

Third, going back to a much happier situation, here’s a lovely shot of Ms. Underwood from Glamour magazine:

And now to soulful Elliott Yamin, who called in while in Norfolk, VA for a concert, not too far from his hometown of Richmond. (He’s going to be at Jingle Jam at Gwinnett Arena on Dec. 10.)

I actually spoke with him a couple of times in May right before what was supposed to be the start of his tour, which was set to open at the Loft in Midtown. But then he got the call from “American Idol” to perform “Wait For You” just as the single was taking off. Hmm… 250 people at the Loft or 30 million people on “Idol.” Not a contest.

“You couldn’t blame me, could you?” he said. Nope. Not at all.

“Wait For You,” as we now know, took off and became a top 5 smash and is one of the biggest singles of the year on top 40 radio.

His management team loved the song when he heard it as a demo. Yamin wasn’t quite convinced at first. “It didnt’ resonate with me right away,” he said. “It wasn’t until I went to New York, sung the song, internalized it and heard it back that I realized this could be something special.”

“The song,” he noted, ” has touching, meaningful lyrics. The music is beautiful. Everything [producers] Stargate touches turns to gold. It did sound like the most radio friendly song on the album.” Stargate, by the way, produced Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” and Rihanna’s current big hit with Ne-Yo “Hate That I Love You.” Oh, and Jordin Sparks’ top 10 hit “Tattoo.” (Unfortunately, his second single “One Word” has stalled with minimal radio airplay.)

I took Deirdre’s question about how fame has affected him. “I’ve become a complete xxxhole!” he joked. More seriously, “Fame is weird. I still feel like the same old Elliott from Richmond, Virginia. My schedule has been so hectic. I seldom have time to reflect. I just go and fly by the seat of my pants. I feel like I’ve been a soldier. It’s amazing all the things that I’ve learned about myself. Two years ago, I would have told you you were crazy if I was told to fly 18 hours to Malaysia, go straight to sound check, play that night, then fly home the next day.”

Heck, in Malaysia for its inaugural Live & Loud Festival, he opened for Whitney Houston in her first concert appearance since her divorce with Bobby Brown. He didn’t get to meet her but “my keyboardist got to play spades with her.” He loved that the Malaysians knew his song well enough to “sing along” while he performed “Wait For You.” “It blew my mind,” he said.

He’s starting to prep concepts for his next album, which he hopes to come out with next summer. “There’s a little less pressure this time around” timewise, he said. “But once you reach a certain level of success, it’s kind of difficult to build and maintain it. There is so much work and so much more to do. We’re right on the right path. I’m really look forward to getting into the studio again. I want to record 30 to 40 songs just to record them.”

And as an insulin-dependent diabetic, he has aggressively lobbied on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Lily, which makes insulin. He has lobbied on Capital Hill and the United Nations. “It’s surreal to me,” he said. “I grew up a troubled teen, never graduated high school. I’m not a dumb person, just never had the book smarts. I’ve always been a hands-on learner who learned at my own pace.” As he was entering the halls of Congress, he said to himself, “Wow. Here I am, this kid from Richmond, this high school dropout, this one time degenerate. I just never expected to be at the level I am today. I had this great sense of pride. I never in a million years thought I’d be meeting Congressmen and urging them to join the fight for a cure for diabetes. I felt like a lobbyist.”

When he was younger, he said, he would visit D.C. from Richmond but not for the monuments or the regular sites. “We would go to strip clubs,” he said. “Politics never once crossed my mind.”

And he expressed sympathy for fellow “Idol” Jessica Sierra, currently in jail after disorderly conduct, threatening officers as well as breaking probation. “People outside don’t understand what we go through in this bubble. Being in the spotlight, I know how easy it is for people to get messed up or hooked on drugs. I’ve seen the temptations. It ain’t easy. It’s hard work. But that will never happen to me. I’m pretty level-headed. I have a great supporting cast and friends and family that help keep me grounded. I know how privileged to be in this position. I’ll never do anything to jeopardize that.”