And you think you’ve had a crazy year.

Give this whirlwind a whirl: In six months you’ve gone from unknown college dropout to ubiquitous music star, headlining arenas across the United States. Americans by the tens of millions handed you a first-place finish on the country’s most popular television program, and more than 20,000 lined the streets to help you celebrate with a hometown victory parade.

Last fall you were another anonymous dude playing bar gigs, just hoping somebody would notice; today you phone up Chris Daughtry for career advice.

If 2009 has been a big, surreal blur for “American Idol” champ Kris Allen, surely you can forgive him.

The 24-year-old singer-guitarist will lead the 2009 finalists, including runner-up Adam Lambert, as the latest “American Idols Live!” tour comes to Conseco Fieldhouse on Saturday. Allen spent the first half of the year learning what it was like to star on a television show. This summer is a crash course in the grind of concert touring.

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world,” concedes Allen, who married his longtime girlfriend last September, just months before life abruptly veered down the “Idol” track. “There’s not a whole lot of sleep, and you’re not on any kind of schedule. But every night is totally worth it. The shows are what we do this for.”

Allen’s “Idol” victory was a surprise of sorts, as the low-key, small-town Arkansan bested the swaggering Lambert. Allen is still soaking it all in, enjoying the rush of fame, and while he hasn’t tired of the media vortex just yet, a few of the question topics are starting to become overly familiar: His relationship with Lambert is wonderful, thanks for asking; his favorite judge was Paula Abdul; and yes, his wife is doing just great, so you can quit assuming she’s resentful about all this.

He understands why the public devotes so much interest to the peripheral stuff — viewers become emotionally invested in the human drama. But Allen does lament that there isn’t more focus on the music.

“I think people do care about it. They wouldn’t care about us if we weren’t talented or good at what we do. . . . But when you’re on the show, there’s so much more that people pay attention to: your personality, what you’re wearing, a lot of the other stuff.”