‘The Voice': 19-Year-Old With a ‘Drinkin’ Problem’ Charms Blake Shelton
The Voice Season 16 continued its blind audition tryouts this week with veteran coaches Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, and Kelly Clarkson, as well as new coach John Legend joining the crew for the first time. Monday night (March 4) found all the coaches adding to their teams, with some surprises.
There are always at least a couple of country-music standouts for Shelton and Clarkson to spar over each season, and the first one this season came early in the night in the form of 19-year-old Carter Lloyd Horne from Marietta, Ga.
The teen had a story of hardship to share before starting his performance. "Growing up, we always lived in super nice places. Everything was really great for a while...I never thought we would be homeless," he confessed. "In 2008, when the market crashed, that ended up with us losing everything."
Horne related the difficulty of seeing his parents struggling to support the family. "For about a year and a half, we lived in this tiny motel. It was actually when we were living in that motel, my grandma got me this cheap little guitar, and I started trying to learn it. Music gave me something to get my mind off of things, and it gave me something to focus on and became a big part of my life. Any time your life changes so drastically, that's going to really just affect your world."
Despite being still too young to legally drink, Horne's tough experience served him to deliver a spot-on mature performance of Midland's world-weary "Drinkin' Problem," which caused both Clarkson and Shelton to spin their chairs.
"I think the most interesting thing about you is it sounded like you literally were like 50," Clarkson raved. "You have this solid old-school sound."
Meanwhile, Shelton noted a few "pitch problems," but admitted that "but knowing that you're 19 years old, this is scary as hell, man, coming out here." He also admiringly noted, "You know what you're doing."
Horne—who, by the way, assured the audience that his parents did work hard and eventually get them out of dire straits—unsurprisingly chose Shelton as his coach, which started Clarkson on a track of grumbling about how no male artists ever select her as coach (don't worry, that all changed later in the episode!).
Tune in weekly as we follow the Voice team builds, with a focus on country music offerings!
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