Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Josh Batstone, 18, of Fulton, N.Y., performed “Amnesia” by 5 Seconds of Summer in a blind audition that was part of a montage. He got Blake Shelton and Adam Levine to turn their chairs. Josh decided to join Team Adam.

His background: Carson Daley referred to him as a high school pop singer. His Voice bio tells us he fell in love with singing in church when he was in seventh grade. Singing wasn’t deemed cool at his high school, but he auditioned for choir anyway. His mom also signed him up for musical theater and he “immediately” landed the lead in “Aladdin.”

What the show didn’t show: Josh has been home-schooled, so he has the advantage of getting up a little later than most kids his age, sitting down in his pajamas and knocking off his school work so he can spend the rest of the day working on music. Various people have suggested Plan B’s, he said in a conference call with the media, but he’s determined to make a career of music. In fact, he told Syracuse.com, he’s thinking of taking a year off between high school and college to focus on music. He’s spent a lot of time in musical theater, but told the newspaper he’s transitioning to more pop-rock music. Oh, and being on The Voice has inspired him to learn to play the guitar. “The past four months we’ve been auditioning, I’ve been playing guitar,” he says in his Voice video. “I’m really inspired by everyone here. They’re so, so good and have been doing it so much longer than me.”

On picking Adam: “I’ve sang a lot of Adam’s music and I’ve really enjoyed him as an artist. And watching him coach people on the show in the past seasons really just sparked an interest and had me looking forward to working with him.”

On iTunes: Just his audition song.

Update: He was paired with Nathan Hermida in a Team Adam battle round. They sang “Thinking Out Loud” in a performance that was montaged. Adam declared Nathan the winner; Josh was eliminated.

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