Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Blind audition: Austin Allsup, 32, of Fort Worth, Texas, sang “Wild Horses,” putting a bit of a country spin on the Rolling Stones’ tune. Blake Shelton turned early in the performance. But despite turning in one of the night’s best vocals, Austin couldn’t entice any of the other coaches to turn. Still, he earned a spot on the show as a member of Team Blake.

His background: His dad is Tommy Allsup, who has worked with everyone in country music from Willie Nelson to George Jones and “many other great artists,” Austin told The Voice. Austin used to be a roadie for his dad, a guitar player. His dad also has a connection to one of the early tragedies in rock and roll history, a 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Booper (J.P. Richardson). Tommy Allsup was Holly’s guitarist at the time and lost a coin flip with Valens for the last seat on the ill-fated flight. Austin’s dad is now 84 and still active musically. As for Austin: “I feel like I’m following in my dad’s footsteps, but blazing my own trail at the same time.” Austin said he and his band play 150 shows a year. “We’re country-rock, with some nitty gritty soul thrown in there.” Eleven years ago, he played a show with Blake, opening for the country music superstar. Blake even remembered after seeing Austin at the blind audition.

What the show didn’t show:
* Austin didn’t meet his famous dad until he was about 17; then moved with him from Arkansas to West, Texas.
* At the time, Tommy Allsup was part of the Bob Wills Texas Playboys, Austin says in an interview you can watch here. Austin served as a roadie, but also says he “would jump on stage any chance I got to sing with those guys.”
* “As a young kid, I always aspired to sing and stuff,” he says. “But it was more of a dream until I met my old man and saw that he had made a living and been doing this for 60 or 70 years now.”
* Austin has now built one of the most impressive musical resumes of any Voice contestant with four albums to his credit, “Intensity,” “Crying Out Loud” (2009), “Sink or Swim” (2011) and “This Weary Land,” released earlier this year. Be sure to check out “Backseat Driver,” “Beautiful Life” and “Rock & Roll Man” from the latter album. I’ll help out by embedding two of the three below. And “Sink or Swim” includes some great ballads, like “Stay Right Here.”
* Austin writes his own music and admits most of his songs come to him “without a guitar in my hand. I will hear a melody and sings the words in my head and whenever I get around a guitar I try to match and emulate what I’ve been singing to myself.”
* Austin has performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland with John Cougar Mellencamp, Joe Ely and Kevin Bacon and his band. “The only reason I went is because I was my dad’s plus one, but I ended up getting to sing and perform with all those folks.” He ranks it as one of his all-time favorite performances.
* According to his Facebook bio, Austin has also gotten to share the stage with Jason Aldean, LeAnn Womack and Ronnie Milsap.
* Austin is married with two children.

Keeping up with Austin:
Twitter: @AustinAllsup
Website
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