Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Viewers of The Voice will rememeber Jamie Lono as the sandwich-making singer.

For the last four years, he says he has worked at Potbelly Sandwich Works in Chicago, pausing the sandwich making for two hours every Friday night to perform for the customers.

But I’ll tell you, it’s a good thing Jamie tried out for The Voice and not American Idol.

I mean, with all his back-stories, Nigel Lythgoe and the other Idol producers might have passed out from exhilaration. Check it out:

* At age 2, he was diagnosed with a tumor on his lung. Half of his left lung had to be removed, and the resulting medical bills sent the family into bankruptcy.

* Also a big guy, he says in his blog for The Voice that he swelled to 270 pounds during a four-month period while his family was living in a hotel when he was 18. But he turned his life around, dropped 80 pounds “and truly, for the first time in my life, started believing in myself.”

* His family was living in a hotel because of a fire at their home. And that’s when Jamie honed his musical skill. The hotel was cramped so, “to get away from everything I would go out to my car and write songs nearly every night.”

Jamie admits he wasn’t that good at first, but something must have worked in those automobile sessions.

His version of Johnny Cash’s “Folsum Prison Blues” (hear it below) was a highlight of The Voice’s Feb. 21 episode and prompted Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine to spin their chairs around.

Jamie chose Cee Lo because he said they seemed to speak the same language. Besides, he jokes, Cee Lo mentioned that he eats sandwiches.

At one point, Jamie spent four years performing in a rock band. Today, he describes his music as blue-eyed soul.

You can hear some of that music by heading to his MySpace page. You’ll also find lots of music on his YouTube channel.

For Jamie’s Facebook page, head here. And, if you’d like to follow him, he’s simply @JamieLono on Twitter.

Now, for some Jamie Lono music.

“Mary Gets Around” original

“Jolene”

The Voice Audition — “Folsum Prison Blues”