“Claim to Fame” Winner on Emotional Finale and Being Painted as the Antihero: 'Not a Complete Image of Myself' (Exclusive)

Following the 'Claim to Fame' season 3 finale, winner Adam talks exclusively with PEOPLE about the finale and being painted as the antihero of the season

This post contains spoilers from the season 3 finale of Claim to Fame.

Claim to Fame season 3 has crowned its winner.

During the second half of the two-hour finale on Wednesday, Hud, Adam and Mackenzie faced off as they competed for the $100,000 grand prize.

After winning the challenge earlier in the episode, Adam got a leg up in the competition as he selected himself as the guesser for both Mackenzie and Hud.

Though Adam was a “wild card” all season, he was ultimately named the victor as he correctly guessed Mackenzie’s relative as her father Trace Adkins and Hud’s relative as his father John Mellencamp. Meanwhile, Adam was revealed to be the nephew of Michael Bolton.

Related: Sparks Fly Between Claim to Fame Stars Mackenzie and Hud in Flirty Clip from Finale (Exclusive)

Of course, his journey to victory wasn’t entirely smooth sailing. Earlier in the episode, Adam got injured during a challenge that nearly knocked him out of the competition altogether. “Adrenaline was high,” he says of the events leading to the injury which caused his head to bleed and later required stitches.

“Luckily, I was able to clot, but before a producer or the team really allowed me to continue, the reality sunk in that I've come this far, and I was my own demise that I was just going too fast, too hard, and I did this to myself, and I'm letting my family down. I'm letting myself down,” he explains.

“It was everything at once. And so I just wept. When I got the okay, and they wrapped me up and I saw that I was in the leaderboard there and that the rest of the game was in my own hands, it was just magic. To me, it was Hollywood magic. It was living this fairy tale experience firsthand, and you want to win. And so the chance that I had to be able to not go home in an ambulance and finish the competition, I'm just so grateful that it went like that.”

He reiterates that he’s doing much better now and even has a little scar to remember the show by. “No major damage. Maybe it might've knocked a couple cents into me at the very least,” he jokes.

While Adam has been painted as the antihero all season, he notes that not everything is as it appears on television. “Honestly, as far as editing is concerned, they're capturing so many realities. I don't think for a second they captured anything that I'm not,” he explains. “I really have had a good life with regards to just being myself and trying to make my way. It might rub people the wrong way at times, and that's okay.”

“Everything is fair when you're just watching something, and you don't know the person,” he adds of the audience’s reactions to him online. “But at the end of the day, anybody that knows me, especially my wife, she was there to really comfort me with that initial shock of being seen as somebody that's not really a complete image of myself.”

He adds that his wife and kids have been some of his biggest supporters during the season, tuning into every episode. “My daughter and my wife and I would have a really sweet time on Wednesday nights where we'd sit there together,” he notes, adding that his 4-year-old was actually a better guesser than he was.

“She literally was calling out what was going to happen,” he says. “She has a sixth sense. She's so beautiful. I married into a larger family and I felt like, ‘Hey guys, I hope I'm not embarrassing you on national television. They're making me out to be this really embarrassing character.’ But they're just so loving and so supportive. They know who I am, and they could see through all the things that were being said, and that really helped me get through the experience as somebody who's being targeted like that.”

Adam adds that Bolton has also been really supportive. During the finale, Adam briefly opens up about his uncle’s surgery earlier this year to remove a brain tumor as he gets emotional over his written message.

“For him to take a moment and send me a message and encourage me like he has done so many times — I have so many signatures of his photograph, ‘To my handsome, talented, good-looking nephew.’ — I for a long time, lived off any word that he had for me,” Adam says of his uncle.

“I grew up watching him as a kid on the stage, and that was the craziest experience,” he says. “I mean, we were living in section 8 housing, and we would take the limo, and we would go to these huge concerts, and that was like everything right there. I knew he was going to be proud because we're a very competitive family. And knowing the challenges that he has had to overcome in his life, I just want to make him proud.”

As for how he plans to use his prize money, Adam notes that he’s already bought his father a truck, which he plans on surprising him with after the finale.

“That was my goal to go on the show is to get enough money to buy my dad a truck as well as meet people who also have celebrity relatives and empathize with each other and see how their lives were impacted by it,” he says. “[After the finale], we're going to bring out the truck and surprise my dad. I'm just super excited to do that for a man who's worked so hard for me. He gives everything. He's given his shirt off his back. He's done everything, and he doesn't ask for anything in return.”

Related: What Happens to Claim to Fame Contestants When They're Eliminated (No, They Don't Go Home)

Following his appearance on the show, Adam also hopes to bring attention to causes close to his heart, including his studio Musical Intervention in New Haven, Conn.

“I wanted to build a creative space for people to not be judged and just to be accepted for their creative talents,” he says of Musical Intervention, which he started when he was 17. “I got my degree, and I started working in psychiatric hospitals, writing and recording songs with people, and really just finding out that music was a language that everybody could share. So I opened up a studio in downtown New Haven that's completely free and open to the public. It's a sober environment, which means anybody can come in and work with each other and find inspiration and craft their skills. Especially for people who don't have money, who don't have the opportunities to access music equipment, producers, other bands, and bandmates, it's really a special thing that I believe belongs in every city.”

Adam notes that his uncle’s passion for music greatly inspired him and the initiative. “If Michael left me anything, it's music lineage, a very deep passion for it,” he explains. “He's a very compassionate man. He is a great philanthropist. And this is something I put my heart and soul into. It is a shoestring budget, but we are making it roll. This is a vision I've had since 17, and carrying it on, seeing the lives changed, that's really the reward. At the end of the day, I get to make music with really amazing, inspired people and get to turn people onto the wonderful world of music.”

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Claim to Fame season 3 is currently streaming on Hulu.

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