Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Jack Rogan, 18, of Rochester, N.Y., performed “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals. He got quick chair turns from Kelly Clarkson and John Legend. But he couldn’t entice a third, in spite of a very nice finish. John liked the gravity and beauty of Jack’s tone and called it a thoroughly enjoyable story-telling performance. Kelly said Jack got better and better. Jack joined Team Legend.

More about Jack:

* He’s one of six children and says his older brothers taught him how to play guitar — just a few chords — when he was very young.

* Jack picked up drums around third grade, violin in middle school and also taught himself to play piano, banjo, ukulele, mandolin and more. ”

* “I’m not amazing at any of these instruments,” he told Voice Views, “but I can play them well enough. Through learning all these instruments, I realized I always gravitated towards the guitar, and I think the reason being, it was the easiest to sing along with.”

* Jack said he started “getting ‘serious’ about singing when I was around 12. ‘Serious’ being, I realized I could impact and connect with people much older than me at a young age!”

* During his Voice bio, we learned that Jack’s family spent a lot of time camping in the Adirondacks, where they’d hold regular family jam sessions. One night, Jack’s dad convinced him to perform. The audience’s reaction convinced Jack he has a knack for music.

* Jack works in a nursing home with a grand piano and often plays and sings for the residents there. “Its like I have 100 different grandmas and grandpas, which is really cool,” Jack told The Voice.

* That said, his blind audition represented his first performance on a real stage. “I actually have almost no experience performing or gigging before the voice,” he told Voice Views. “Other than playing for my parent’s friends, times up at a Christian camp up in the Adirondacks singing with my brother for campers, and playing for my closest friends and family, I really have no experience. So The Voice was pretty surreal having such an incredible opportunity to perform in front of such a large audience!”

* In terms of musical inspirations, Jack said he “grew up listening to a lot of 60s rock and folk music. Artists such as Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Glenn Campbell and Johnny Cash really interest me because of their unique tones, and beautiful ways of telling stories through their music. More recently I listen to a LOT of Daniel Caesar, The Lumineers, and Chris Stapleton as well. I appreciate all music, but definitely feel a natural lean toward bluesy rock, folk music.”

* Jack released a song to Spotify last year. It’s called “Waiting for Connection” and you can check out a snippet below.

* Says Jack: “I definitely plan on recording more in the near future and recording music that aligns more with my identity in music as it evolves, and I continue to discover who it is I want to be as an artist.”

Jack on social media:
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube