Wilkes landed a spot on Team Blake for Season 14 of The Voice. (NBC Photo)
His background: Wilkes says his journey in music started when he was in high school. For 12 years, he was part of a band called High Flight Society. He even proposed to his wife on stage in song. Then, in 2010, his daughter was born. “It was definitely a life-changing experience,” says Wilkes. He left the road as a musician and became a stay-at-home dad. He writes country music, but describes his wife — owner of a hair salon — as the bread winner of the family. He sees his time on The Voice as an opportunity to take some of the financial pressure off her.
What the show didn’t show:
* A music veteran, Jason Wilkes grew up in Cedartown, Ga., now lives in Waleska, Ga., and labels himself a country-pop artist.
* He was just 16 when he joined High Flight Society, a Christian rock band. They wound up releasing an album and a pair of EPs with Wilkes as lead vocalist. At one point, they served as the backing band for country star Sam Hunt, awho also hails from Cedartown.
* High Flight Society stopped touring in 2012 after the band’s drummer Scotty Lockridge died suddenly at age 31. For a while, Wilkes worked as a worship leader.
* He then joined a Christian rock band called Disciple as a bass player, background vocalist and co-lead vocalist. He was part of the band for its 2014 “Attack” album, which reached number 44 on the Billboard 200 and number two on the Christian albums chart. In fact, Wilkes has a song-writing credit on three of the album’s tracks.
* In 2014, Jason took to KickStarter to fund an EP under the stage name Wilkes. He described the project as pop-rock music meets worship. “Shells,” the resulting eight-track project, was released in late 2015.
* More recently, he’s moved his music in a country-pop direction. He released a three-song EP called “No Filter, Part 1” last year as well as a single called “Stealing from Heaven.” You can find all four songs on digital music sites and as free downloads from Wilkes’ website. I’ve embedded the excellent “Stealing from Heaven” below.
* Talking about his music during a conference call with the media, Wilkes said: “I’ve always had Christian-based themes but it’s never been super overt. So even though my music isn’t overtly Christian, you can at least categorize it as inspiring. I write 75 percent of my songs about my wife. So it’s about love and God is love. I walk a blurry line, but I’m unashamedly a believer and I wear that on my sleeve, but I don’t necessarily brand myself as Christian music.”
On picking Team Blake: “The main reason I went with Team Blake is because it’s really important to me to be able to get along with somebody I’m working with personally. And not that I wouldn’t get along with Adam; I think I would. We connect on a lot of points. But me and Blake are both southern guys. We both come from the same background. We’re kind of cut from the same cloth. And I just knew walking into a room with Blake we would immediately connect.”
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Twitter: @WILKESmusic
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7 Comments
LOVE THAT SONG! “Stealing From Heaven” by Wilkes. So catchy.
Jason is a GREAT man of GOD!!! I’m praying for God’s will on this new journey. Love his family! I go to church with all of them.
Congrats Jason for being on The Voice and movin’ on. I really enjoyed your song “Stealing From Heaven”. Very catchy tune. Maybe we can co-write someday. All the best my friend. Jimmy ‘BLaze Carello
We saw you perform on the Voice and were so happy for you. We also live in Waleska. Maybe we will meet you some day. God’s blessings.
Jason Wilkes you absolutely take this mamma’s breath away 😀 Your voice is like Liquid Gold !!!
We are soooooo proud of you ……we cheer you on to WIN <3 We stand with you and Chelsey and Princess Linley!
Im not sure i want to continue watching the voice now that you were bot chosen for funal 12. Dumb on Blakes part ..
Please let me know how I can purchase the music on the voice on cd? Amazing artist🙏🙏🙏