Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Blake Shelton and Sundance Head after their triumph on Season 11 of The Voice. (NBC Photo)

At the time, he had auditioned for Season 6 of American Idol. In fact, he was one of the season’s early favorites.

He never made it past the Top 24.

“I was unprepared,” he said during a conference call with the media back in September. “I definitely was not ready for what went down. I think that they spent a lot of time trying to help me out and trying to guide me in the right direction.

“At the same note, I was a little bit naïve about the whole process, and I should’ve paid more attention to what the show was trying to advise me to do as far as leadership.”

On The Voice, Sundance squandered no opportunities.

And when Carson Daly announced the Season 11 winner Tuesday night, Sundance was at center stage, surrounded by his wife, his three children and his parents and singing an original song he wrote.

Trying to sing would be a better description of what he was doing. Because for the first several seconds of his victory song, he was too overcome with emotion to get out many lyrics.

In the process, Sundance became the first former American Idol contestant to win the show. He became just the third singer to win the show after turning just two chairs in his blind audition.

And he became the fifth singer coached by Blake Shelton to win The Voice.

Unlike on Idol, Sundance was not an early-season favorite on The Voice. That label would more aptly suit Wé McDonald, who was featured in the post-Olympics sneak peek episode; or Billy Gilman, the former country music child star looking for a second chance at stardom.

Both turned four chairs in their blind auditions.

Sundance arrived at the show looking for a second chance in music too. Age 37 when he auditioned, he had spent eight years working in a machine shop before turning back to music full time when the oil industry went into a tailspin.

His first two performances on the show didn’t even crack the iTunes Top 200 singles chart.

But he started getting more attention after putting the Sundance twist on Miley Cyrus’ country smash “The Climb” during the knockout round.

And then he hit his stride during the live shows, his heartfelt vocals drawing more and more supporters each week.

He wound up leading all the finalists on iTunes three of the last four weeks. He topped the iTunes singles chart twice — with “Me and Jesus” on Top 10 week and with that original song, “Darlin’ Don’t Go,” performed Monday night.

This week, he was pure magic, singing that original with undeniable conviction, paying tribute to his father with a fun performance of “Treat Her Right” with Blake Shelton, and boldly covering Etta James’ “At Last” for his final performance. After all, that washardly a safe song choice for a country contestant on The Voice.

All the gambles paid off. He wound up with three songs in the iTunes Top 10, something no other finalist accomplished.

And when voting ended Monday, every one of his Voice covers was in the Top 100 on iTunes.

By the time Monday’s season finale drew to a close, all that was left was the official proclamation from Carson.

Sundance Head won “this sucker.”