Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His blind audition: Justin Kilgore, 30, of Buffalo, Texas, performed “Tomorrow” by Chris Young. All four coaches turned, but Alicia Keys blocked Blake Shelton, limited Justin’s choices to Alicia, Adam Levine and Kelly Clarkson. He opted to join Team Kelly.

His background: Justin grew up on a farm that has been in his family for more than 100 yers, but says he “learned every on that was not going to be the track for me.” He always realized he liked boys at an early age, but came from a conservative community. “So I decided to keep that to myself.” He was in college when he was drawn to music, specifically country music. He moved to Austin, worked on launching a country career, but eventually “set music aside for a while.” “The Voice is the first opportunity I’ve had to be myself (as a musician) in my entire life,” he said.

What the show didn’t show:

* While he sang a country song for his audition, on Facebook, Justin describes himself as a pop / country / folk singer-songwriter based in Austin.

* He won the Central Texas Idol competition back in 2010, singing “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” during the competition.

* He eventually adopted the stage named Aiden Kross, though he now says it’s a name with which he no longer associates himself.

* As Aiden Kross, he released a pair of country albums, the eight-song “Anywhere But Here” in 2012 and the 10-track “Letting Go” in 2013.

* Head to Soundcloud and you can check out a couple of songs from that second album, “One of These Days” and “So Easy.”

* At one point, he also tried on pop/EDM as a genre. You can check out a couple of those songs on Soundcloud as well, including “Catch My Breath.”

* One of those unreleased tunes there is the lovely “I’ll Find You” with fellow musician and good friend Elley Duhe, who auditioned for The Voice in 2012 and has released four pop singles since 2016.

On picking Kelly: “Kelly was always a pick for me. Like, it was between Kelly and Blake, no matter what. So the fact that he was blocked just meant that I knew that I was going to be going with Kelly regardless, you know. Her connection with country music, her husband (Brandon Blackstock, Blake’s manager), her mother-in-law (Reba McEntire) — it was a no-brainer.”

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