Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Garrett Gardner had plenty of reasons to be a little anxious about his blind audition for The Voice Season 4.

After all, he’d auditioned for Season 3 and failed to turn a chair with his performance of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.”

He’d decided to audition the second time around with “Seven Nation Army,” a song previously performed on The Voice by show favorites Melanie Martinez and Jamar Rogers.

And, to top it all off, he got sick shortly before his Season 4 audition was scheduled.

“I was praying for the weeks leading up that nothing would go wrong,” the 17-year-old from Ringwood, N.J., said. “But, of course, just coincidence, I got really, really bad bronchitis, and I was coughing … I was really nervous because of that.”

You couldn’t tell he was sick from his take on The White Stripes’ tune, but it wasn’t until the last second that Shakira turned around, giving Garrett a spot on a team for Season 4.

Said Garrett: “I’m very thankful that it all worked out in the end.”

In a conference call with the media the day after his audition aired, Garrett said he knew if he tried a singing show again, it would be The Voice.

He said trying out for Season 11 of American Idol is what prompted him to audition for Season 3 of The Voice in the first place. While the folks at Idol were encouraging, he described everyone he met with The Voice as “incredible.”

He just didn’t expect a second chance to come so quickly.

“I didn’t really have that much time to prepare again. I just tried to play out live at as many venues as possible,” he said, explaining that, in particular, he was trying to address some “hard, but much-needed constructive criticism” he got from Blake after his first audition.

As for his song choice … yeah, he knew he had a tough act to follow after Melanie received rave reviews for her performance of the same song in Season 3.

But he said “I really wanted to show something that … I could see myself singing … 10 years down the line. I always love putting a new spin on things and it was a really cool honor to be able to do that.”

Should Garrett survive long on The Voice, we might see a good deal of musical versatility from him.

According to The Voice website, he plays guitar, drums, keyboards, ukulele and mandolin.

And in a story on northjersey.com, his former principal recalls Garrett teaching himself to play “left-handed bass in one week” because he wanted to do “Yesterday” by Paul McCartney in a school talent show.

Garrett dedicated his Voice performance to his dad, Donald, a well-known jazz musician and drummer who died in 2010 and served as his inspiration for getting involved in music.

If you want to follow Garret, he’s @GarrettGardner2 on Twitter. And here are links to his Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Now, for some Garrett Gardner music.

Update: Garrett defeated J’Sun in the battle round on their rendition of “How You Like Me Now.” In the knockout round, he sang “Too Close” and defeated Tawnya Reynolds, who performed “Hell on Heels.” Performed “Imagine” in the live playoffs and advanced to the Top 12 with the help of Shakira’s save.

“Road Trip” (a Garrett original with Every Hello)

“Seven Nation Army” (a pre-Voice version)