Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Will Champlin, 30, of Reseda, Calif., auditioned with Gavin DeGraw’s “Not Over You.” The performance prompted Blake Shelton, then Adam Levine and Cee Lo Green to spin their chairs. Adam complimented Will on “a really incredible voice,” and called the performance “spectacular.”

Background: Will is the son of Bill Champlin, a former member of the band Chicago, and says his father’s career was “very inspiring” to his desire to perform. Bill calls some of the songs Will has written “absolutely gorgeous.” Will’s other inspiration to take his music career to the next level: He has a wife and new daughter. “I would like to provide for them in a much bigger way,” Will says. He calls appearing on The Voice a “game changer.”

On choosing Adam: “I had on my mind that I was going to go with Cee Lo because I thought he would be able to relate to my soulful R&B roots that I came up on. But instinct just kind of took over. I knew that I had to be mentored by somebody that knew the market I was going for. Adam really got it and explained to me that he was the guy for me.”

What the show didn’t show: Will has one of the most star-studded musical resumes of Season 5 contestants on The Voice, having played piano on Michael Jackson’s last album, having recorded and performed with Billy Ray Cyrus and having toured with Glenn Frey of The Eagles. In his Facebook bio, he also says he’s written for and produced for “a ton of independent artists.” But he hasn’t always been in the background. He’s released three albums of his own material — “One World” in 2004, “The Goldmine Sessions” in 2005 and a 13-track self-titled album in 2008. His lists his genre as pop/rock/R&B. You can check out full-length versions of several of his songs on his Facebook band page.

Quote: From his Facebook bio — “If you’re ever in Disney’s California Adventure and you listen like a hawk, you might hear my background vocals on a few tunes in “Cars Land.”

On iTunes: All three of those previous albums are still available, plus the studio version of his Voice audition song.

Keeping up with Will: On Twitter — @willchamplin — Facebook — YouTube — Website

For profiles of other Season 5 contestants, go here.

Will Champlin, “Holland Road”

Will Champlin, “Sweet Pea”