Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Brad Sample, 38, Nashville, Tenn., “The Letter” by The Box Tops: A few guitar licks and a couple of lines of the vocal was all it took to earn a chair turn from Reba McEntire. Brad displayed a nice rasp and surprising power to go along with it, which helped entice a late chair turn from Snoop Dogg. Reba loved the song, Brad’s voice and his energy. Snoop said the performance kept growing on him and he just had to turn his chair. Brad opted to join Team Snoop.

Here’s more about Brad.

* He’s a veteran Nashville-based musician in his late 30s who’s released music as a solo artist and with a rock band.

* The band he fronted was called Run With Bulls, which released an EP called “Brand New Tongue” in 2010 and an album called “Feed the Machine” in 2012. “Jealousy,” one of the band’s songs, has more than 1.2 million streams on Spotify.

* As a solo artist, Brad’s released a pair of albums, “Rhinestones and Broken Bones” in 2019 and “Ghosts of a Love” in 2021. He just held a vinyl album release show for “Ghosts of Love” in May.

* His most recent single was the excellent “Getaway Driver” from the latter album. You can check out the music video for that song below.

* Growing up in Nashville, Brad got an early start in music, taking an internship at Ricky Skaggs’ studio at age 15. Skaggs would become one of his mentors.

* Originally a drummer, he picked up the guitar around age 19 and found himself doing session work on an Alice Cooper album by age 25, according to an interview Brad did with Everyone Loves Guitar.

* He worked as a lead guitarist, session guitarist and band leader for other artists as well and has performed with country artists Brett Eldredge, Brooke Eden and Randy Houser.

* In his bio on Songfinch, he says he’s played the Grand Ole Opry “dozens of times and (will) continue to do so whenever asked.”

* He’s working on a new song with Inglewood Instruments called “Ballad of Billy the Kid” in which he compares the Old West to the “chaotic landscape of social media.” You can check out that snippet on his Instagram.

* And he’s already set up an Oct. 16 show with two of his Season 26 colleagues, Jake Tankersley and Mister Moon. Read nothing into that. It will take place while pre-taped episodes of Season 26 are still airing.

* Why audition for The Voice? He summed up his rationale in his Voice announcement post, writing: “I have been honored to play guitar for other artists in arenas, legendary venues like the Grand Ole Opry, and on TV. But I want to share my own music in those kind of avenues as well. So, in the name of leaving no stone unturned in that pursuit, I’m excited to announce I auditioned for @nbcthevoice.”

* Brad’s hobbies include collecting guitars and running in marathons.

Brad on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
YouTube