Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Nick Townsend is one of the talented singers we’ll meet on Sunday’s Season 17 premiere of American Idol.

He’s the young man who lost two brothers to suicide. We’re likely to hear more about that, and his music, when Idol returns for Season 17 on Sunday at 8 p.m.

Here’s more about Nick:

* Both of those deaths occurred within the last 18 months, and Nick told the Lincoln Star Journal that played a key role in his decision to audition for the show.

* “It was more of a platform to tell my brothers’ story,” he told the newspaper of his older brother Zack and younger brother Matt. “I did it to help people in mine or my parents’ shoes. The negatives (in life) are easy to find. I want people to be able to focus on the good things. They’re harder to dig for, but they’re worth it.”

* Nick is from Tekamah, Nebraska, but he’s now based in Los Angeles. He told the Journal Star he’s been doing behind-the-scenes stuff in L.A. to further his career.

* This isn’t his first singing show audition. His Season 12 blind audition aired on The Voice. Nick sang “Risk It All,” and did a nice job, but failed to turn a chair.

* In his Voice bio package, Nick told the show that he grew up playing sports because, coming from his small town, singing wasn’t something young men did.

* But a stint with an international music program call Young Americans confirmed his love for singing and his desire to make a career in music.

* In an audition video you can check out below, Nick says he spent five years with the group, touring the U.K., Europe, Asia and the U.S. performing and teaching music.

* In February, Nick posted a cover of “Sound On,” saying it was recorded three months prior, at a time when he’d never been in a recording studio or written original music.

* Since then, he announced, he’s completed work on an EP called “All 4 You.” He added that he wrote all the songs with The Come Up Boyz.

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