Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Brian Johnson, 24, of Cleveland, Ohio, sang Rod Stewart’s “Reason to Believe.” He displayed lots of range and power in one of the best night four performances. Adam Levine turned around in a heartbeat, followed soon after by Blake Shelton. Blake praised the emotion he put into the performance. Despite expressing a pre-audition preference for Adam, Brian joined Team Blake.

His background: Brian told The Voice he started with music in middle school choir, but was bullied because he had a high voice and was heavy. As a result, he didn’t have much confidence. Once he reached college, where singing was considered “cool,” he decided it represented a fresh start and formed a band called The Rescued. “We played every coffee house that was willing to take us,” he said. But after leaving college, his dad was diagnosed with MS. Brian wound up moving back home and taking a job in the insurance field so he could help care for him.

What the show didn’t show: He says he does much of his singing in church and describes his genre as pop, gospel and soul. Artists he’s been influenced by range from Justin Timberlake, Adele and Sam Smith to classic artists like Bill Withers and Otis Redding. “The biggest thing I have to convey to America is my style and how soul and gospel really work in with pop music. That’s what I think is going to catch people. I think people are looking for more artists like that — more genuine, more soul in their voices.” Oh, and he has a message he’d like to deliver to youngsters who are bullied, the way he was in middle school. That message: “You have to make your own definition of who you are and you can’t let other people define you. I’m a really strong believer and I have gone through a lot in life where God has given me the strength to kind of shake off a lot of the things that has happened in the past, which has given me the confidence to do something like The Voice. But to a lot of kids out there, they really just need to hear that they need to define their own path, they need to define who they are and they shouldn’t let other people define their confidence or define who they are as a person.”

On picking Blake: “When Adam and Blake started talking and started kind of fighting over, you know, me being on their team Blake said something along the lines of: ‘If you go with Adam’s team there’s going to be a lot of people on his team that may sound like you or may have the same style as you, and if you come on my team, you’re going to be unique and you’re the type of artist that I would protect.’ And after he said that, in the back of my mind it just kind of clicked and I was like ‘Done, I’m in.’ So that’s what made me decide to go with Blake.”

On iTunes: Just his Voice performances.

Update: Brian was pitted against Joshua Davis in the battle round. They sang “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Blake declared Brian the winner; Joshua was stolen by Adam. In the knockout round, he was matched against four-chair turn recipient Sarah Potenza. Brian performed James Morrison’s “Nothing Ever Hurt Like You.” Sarah was declared the winner, but Brian escaped eliminated when he was stolen by Adam Levine.

Live playoffs: He performed “At This Moment” and received Adam’s coach’s save to make the Season 8 finals. The song landed at number 66 on iTunes’ singles chart.

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Twitter: @BWJohnsonMusic