Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Drew Cole of The Voice Season 14. (NBC Photo)

His background: A Connecticut native, he works as a bartender at a theater in L.A. He made the move after a YouTube video he posted — “Golden Loves Guitar” — went viral, attracting nearly 14 million views to date. In it, Drew plays guitar to a golden retriever, who stops smiling every time Drew stops playing. A music producer discovered Drew’s other video content as a result of “Golden Loves Guitar: and invited him to L.A. He’s been there ever since, playing bars and small venues, waiting for his big break. “When I’m not behind the bar, it’s music, constantly,” he told Carson Daly. “I did not move to L.A. to be a bartender. I moved to be a rock star.”

What the show didn’t show:

* On his website, Drew — real name, Drew Arcoleo — describes himself as a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actor. He says his vocal style fuses the genres of rock, soul, pop and R&B.

* Drew said he became fascinated with guitar and music after his dad introduced him to the instrument when he was 10 years old. By the end of high school, he says he was also pretty confident in his vocal ability.

* He turned down an opportunity to attend the Berklee College of Music in order to pursue an economics degree at the University of Connecticut. He was a student there when he filmed “Golden Loves Guitar.”

* Before shortening his stage name, he released a pair of singles are Drew Arcoleo — “Keep This Love Alive” and “The Break Up.”

* He released three singles in 2017 — “Kings and Queens,” “Flash and Thunder” and “California Ghosts.”

* At one point, he was performing as Drew Cole and The Shook Souls, described as a “soul/infused pop-rock group.” There are a trio of two-song “Shook Soul” releases by Drew Cole on Spotify.

* Head to his YouTube channel and you can check out all those 2017 singles, plus lots of covers. I’ve embedded his latest release — “Kings and Queens” — below.

* His “Sex and Candy” cover became the most successful song on iTunes among those available from the first night of the blind auditions. Drew said it came from melding an Allen Stone version of the song with a Maroon 5 cover of the tune.

On picking Adam, even though Blake said Drew could win The Voice: “I really for a long time have looked up to Adam, and my gut was telling me to go with him and then I did. But I mean it was an incredible feeling to hear those words coming out of Blake’s mouth too.”

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