Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Jack Gregori, 37, of Washington, D.C., performed Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” He displayed a wonderful baritone voice that got Adam Levine to turn around early in the song. Inexplicably, Adam was the only coach to turn.

His background: Jack’s backstory is among the more interesting we’ve heard in Season 8. He says his family pushed him very strongly not to try music right out of high school. So he went to the University of Maryland and studied business, then went to law school at Boston University. He formed a company and did real estate title work. At one point, he had a 40-person company. Then the economy crashed and he said he lost all his money. “What I realized was that all that money wasn’t really the key to being happy.” It’s at that point that he started playing more music. He has a six-room house and rents out rooms to pay the mortgage. He still does some title work, but also performs in a band called Human Country Jukebox. “There’s nothing better than playing music,” he says.

What the show didn’t show: Jack says he started playing music as a kid, learning saxophone, piano and guitar. “I got hooked when I was a kid in the ’80s and watched The Blues Brothers movie,” he writes in his website bio. “That opened it up for me and I haven’t stopped since.” He performed in a couple of bands in college and after college, but it’s only been over the last 3-5 years that he’s performed more as a professional musician. “Going forward I’d like to be known as a songwriter and be able to present my original material to everybody.” These days, he performs with a band called the Human Country Jukebox, partly because he’s able to sing pretty much any country song a fan requests. Last June, he released an 8-track album under that name; the track “Can’t Write No Songs” is a hoot. Jack said it was a friend who suggested he audition for The Voice; it wasn’t something he’d really considered to that point.

On being on Team Adam: Jack said he figured Blake and Adam were his top two choices going in, “probably more so Blake just because that’s really the kind of music I like to sing … But Blake didn’t turn around, so Adam was kind of my 1-A choice anyway.”

On iTunes: The aforementioned album and his audition single.

Update: In the battle round, he was matched with Barry Minniefield. They sang Joe Cocker’s “Feelin’ Alright.” Adam declared Barry the winner; Jack was eliminated from the show.

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Twitter: @JackGregori

“Take Me Back to Tulsa” (Bob Willis cover)

“It’s Been a Great Afternoon” (Merle Haggard cover)