Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Lots of Season 12 Idol contestants say they grew up around musical influences.

That was certainly the case for 21-year-old David Willis of Mount Dora, Fla.

David was just 12 when he was touring and performing with his mother, Hattie Willis, a motivational evangelistic singer, according to an interview he did with the Orlando Sentinel.

The article also tells us he performed with six different choirs growing up and spent two years singing with an opera company in Orlando.

Today?

Well, you won’t be surprised to learn that he’s the worship minister at a church in Florida.

And sings in coffee shops and restaurants in his spare time.

It’s his singing style that he thinks will help set him apart on Idol.

“It’s a little bit of folk, a little bit of blues, like oldies and then the things of today,” he says in his Road to Hollywood video.

“So it’s kind of like an eclectic melting pot of new music and old-school music.”

After all, he told the Orlando Sentinel he grew up listening to the music of B.B. King, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday and, his personal favorite, Sam Cooke.

In fact, he sang Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” as one of his audition songs in Carlotte, N.C.

Here are three videos of David performing. For more, head here.

“This”

“I Can’t Make You Love Me”

“Let It Be”