“There was the possibility of doing permanent damage,” Paige Miles spoke to reporters in a gravelly voice after her Wednesday elimination from American Idol. The eleventh-place contestant suffered with illness for three weeks leading up to her permanent dismissal from the show. “I had to take it easy. Unfortunately, it was bad timing. Awful timing.”

Paige Miles delivered a truly terrible performance Tuesday night, which led to her ultimate elimination the very next day. Paige was left with zero hope of staying on the show when Simon Cowell informed her, point-blank, she didn’t have a shot at getting the judges’ save. “I initially thought the save was something that…you get the opportunity to at least sing for it and then they make their decision.” So, how did it feel to hear that she had no shot, even before she sang? “I was pretty bummed,” Paige admitted.

“It definitely wasn’t my best, and they [the judges] ripped me for it,” Miles said of her Tuesday showing.

We’re all hoping that Paige recovers her voice soon and gets back to singing. Meanwhile, keep track of all the on- and off-camera action - check out all our American Idol 9 posts.