Josh Leming

Last January, in a classic "American Idol" preseason meltdown, the hyper-emotional Josiah Leming was sent home -- which in his case meant his car. Now, less than a year later, in one of "Idol's" unlikely turns of fate, the high school dropout who'd left his ailing mother, out-of-work stepfather and eight siblings in Morristown, Tenn., is back, living the high life in Los Angeles and poised to release his first album on Warner Bros. Records.