BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Derek Hough did not want to be a dancer.
Sure, he's now in his third season on "Dancing With the Stars" (7 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4), but this is not something he's wanted to do all his life. He sort of got dragged into it by his mother and four sisters.
"At a very young age, my mom wanted me to dance," Hough said in an interview with the Deseret News. "She saw us as the blond Osmonds. You know, coming from Utah."
He was "playing a lot of sports" and had no interest. But he got dragged to his sisters' dance classes against his will.
"And my mom was, like, 'Why don't you go try and get involved?"' said Hough, who acquiesced. "I hated it. I couldn't believe I was being forced into doing this."
But before long, he changed his mind.
"The people were really nice. The girls were cute" and his dance teacher "was a cool guy and he got me into it."
When he turned 12, he and his younger sister, Julianne, moved to London to live with friends. What was supposed to be a three-month stay turned into a decade as Derek attended a performing arts school, competed in umpteen dance competitions and performed in London's West End — including a yearlong run in the lead of the musical "Footloose."
And then he came back and danced with Julianne, a two-time winner on "Stars," in an episode of the show. And dancing with his sister is also something he never much cared for.
"You know, my dad always wanted me and Julianne to get together and compete," Hough said. "And I always was like, 'Heck no! I do not want to dance with my sister. That's weird. That's random. It's awkward."
His appearance caught the attention of the producers, who signed him as one of the regular dancers. After partnering with Jennie Garth and Shannon Elizabeth, this season he's dancing with Brooke Burke.
But what Hough really wants to be is a rock star. Last month, he and his best friend/fellow dancer Mark Ballas — himself a "Dancing With the Stars" winner — signed a contract with Hollywood Records for their band, Almost Amy.
(The group also includes Emily Grace, Harry Sullivan and Sam Marder.)
"We've always done the music and the dancing together, growing up. The dancing just happened to come first as an opportunity," Hough said.
The band's name doesn't really mean anything. Hough said he and Ballas came up with it when they were 13 or 14.
"We went through a punk-rock phase and we were, like, "We need some sort of Emo name. I drew a logo with two A's and we said, 'We should be something with two A's.
"And not Alcoholics Anonymous.' We didn't know what that meant at the time."
The name sort of came out of nowhere.
"He said, 'Almost.' I said, 'Amy.' And that was it," Hough said.
"We've been trying to get rid of it ever since. But now it's so imbedded in us that we can't change it."
And Emo was just one of the many phases Ballas and Hough experienced.
"We went through every phase," Hough said. "We would be, like Goth, black hair, makeup, fingernails painted, baggy jeans. We would scare everybody (at dance competitions). We would show up all skatered out."
They also went through punk-rock, heavy metal, death metal and jazz phases before arriving at a "very commercial rock/pop sound."
And, just as "Dancing With the Stars" helped launch Julianne Hough's country-music career, Derek is hoping it will help launch his music career.
"I think it will help," he said. "But it's funny, because people will always be skeptical when they see us. They'll think, 'These guys are dancers, not musicians.' But everybody who's come and seen us play has been pleasantly surprised. We are, I would say, A-class musicians.
"If you think we dance good, you should see us play."
HOUGH INSISTS that he's not competitive with his little sister, Julianne (three years his junior). But ...
"She's competitive with me," he said. "Remember when she won ('Dancing With the Stars') with Helio (Castroneves)? She said, 'Yeah, I won. But I beat my brother!"'
He finished fourth that season, his first on the show, with partner Jennie Garth. Last season he finished sixth with Shannon Elizabeth, while Mark Ballas was winning with Kristi Yamaguchi.
Which means that Hough's sister has won it twice, his best friend has won it once ... and he has yet to take home a mirror-ball trophy.
"If it were a real competition, yeah, I would be upset," he said. "But this show, it's a different thing. It's based on a lot of things. Fan base. Likability.
"You know, if somebody doesn't like your celebrity, there's nothing you can do about it. You do what you can."
(Ballas and his partner, Kim Kardashian, were eliminated last week. Both Houghs — Derek and Burke, Julianne and Cody Linley — are still in the running.)
HE'D LIKE TO WIN, but winning isn't Hough's primary goal on "Dancing With the Stars."
"For me, my most important thing is to make sure that the celebrity has the best time," he said. "Even if they get kicked out the second week, third week, whatever, they'll leave saying, 'I had the best time of my life doing that show. I had so much fun.' That's my goal."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com