Blind Joe soars on The Voice

Local singer advancing on NBC competition show

The Red River Valley has been abuzz with the recent news that local musician Blind Joe is a contestant on NBC’s The Voice and has advanced past the blind auditions stage. This past Friday, in one of his first one on one interviews since he was allowed to talk (the episode has been taped for a while but performers were sworn to silence until it aired), HPR caught up with the country crooner who has previously been named best local musician in HPR’s annual Best Bets Awards.

HPR: What’s this ride been like? How’s it been going for you?

Blind Joe: It’s absolutely crazy. It’s been an amazing thing. This is a rather lengthy process even just auditioning so we’ve had to hold our tongue for quite a while. Now to be able to talk about it and of course the episode has aired and everybody has just been so cool. My Facebook and email and Twitter are just blowing up. It’s like getting big warm hugs every time I pick up my phone. It’s amazing and I am so thankful and so just appreciative of everything from everyone and this just constant outpouring of congratulations from everyone. I can’t even put it into words.

HPR: With this type of exposure, you are picking up fans from all across the country and you’ve seen your Itunes sales pick up extensively, haven’t they?

BJ: We made it to #32 on the Itunes charts with the song which is great. That’s amazing to me. If you would’ve told me last week that next week you are going to be a top 40 country artist, I would’ve been like yeah whatever. But you know it happened and that’s all because of people like you guys. I do a lot of the sales for the t-shirts and stuff and my other independent CDs at Blindjoe.com and that’s been going crazy. It’s just such a wonderful feeling to be able to have all that love behind you.

HPR: Talk a little bit about how you became involved with this. You are someone who has been around the music business for a long time, what made you decide to go for it this time and audition and try out?

BJ: I’ve been doing this now for over 10 years, playing the bar scene and small town gigs and stuff like that. I got married to my beautiful wife Liann about a year and a half ago and I think that was a big motivator for me because I want to be able to take care of her and we want to start a family. Like any reasonable woman, she wants stability and needs stability and I want to be the person that provides that for her. So I went online and signed up and I talked to her and said why don’t we do this, let’s take our credit card, drive to Chicago for the open calls and I’ll do it. I’ll do my best and I think I have a shot and everybody had been telling me at all shows you gotta do the Voice and for so long I thought I don’t know man, reality TV that’s not my deal. But when you love someone as much as I love Liann your mentality changes, you don’t have just yourself to think about anymore and here we are.

HPR: How nerve wracking is it? You go from auditioning and now you are up there with these acts that you’ve admired for years in front of million people, does that make you nervous?

BJ: It’s extremely nerve wracking. Competition in general for me is nerve wracking. I don’t handle competition well. I get very, very nervous. That part of it is nerve wrecking and then of course like you said you are up there with Blake and Adam and Gwen and Pharell and they are the best at what they do, bar none and that too piles on the nerves. I try to have as much fun as I can while I am doing it but it’s definitely nothing like getting on stage and having control of the situation and playing the shows that I love to play. It’s a whole different ballgame. It’s wonderful and I am very appreciative but you know I very much prefer getting on stage and doing what I do.

HPR: You picked Blake Shelton to be on his team, can you talk about why you did that? Was he an influence for you?

BJ: Blake’s been a hero of mine for years a long time. I’ll never forget being back in college and he came out with his song “Austin” and I thought man country music was and still is in a place that’s more orientated towards other genres pop, hip hop and that sort of thing and Blake really struck a chord with me and of course I picked up his record and I’ve been listening to him ever since. He’s one of those people that you can tell when you listen to his music, has a real passion for country music and I appreciate that. That’s why I picked him. I almost picked Adam though, I’ll tell you that. He was very compelling and I just about went with him. In the end, I had to go with my boy. That’s a once in a lifetime thing. To be able to be given advice by someone you’ve looked up to for years, I just couldn’t pass up that opportunity.

HPR: Why don’t you talk about song selection? Why you did what you did and what you may do in the future? I know you can’t tell us what you are gonna do. You are someone with a lot of country and blues background but can we expect some wild cards in the weeks to come that show your range?

BJ: What I can tell you as far as the song that I chose for the blind audition was written by a guy named Chris Stapelton, he was the front man of a bluegrass outfit called the SteelDrivers. First time I heard their record, I just about jumped out of my skin. It’s such an amazing record, if you get a chance, pick up their self-titled album. It’s one of the best bluegrass albums ever in my opinion. That song ("If It Hadn't Been For Love”) the first time I heard it, it just stuck with me because it’s just such a raw, gritty, killing song. I love it, I love the minor key and the lyrics. It’s fun to sing, it’s got a lot of heart and soul and that’s why I chose that song. As far as what’s to come, I’ve always been a country dude and there are a lot of rock influences that I have. One of my favorite bands is Pantera. I also really like Sevendust, Slipknot, Guns ‘N Roses, that kind of stuff. A lot of their stuff even though it’s kind of metal orientated, it has a lot of roots in rock and roll. I’d like to do something a little more rockish and really just put some more power behind it. We’ll see what happens.

HPR: We’ve had a pretty good amount of candidates from our region that have done really well, Kat Perkins, Nicholas David, does that give you a little faith that someone from our neck of the woods can do really well on the show?

BJ: North Dakota and Minnesota in general have some of the best musicians in the country as far as I am concerned and that’s because we get beat down by 8, 9 month winters and there’s a lot of crap to write about and we have a lot of time to do it. We work hard, we’re hard working people and we’re dedicated and we’re humble and that’s what you have to be in this business. I am just honored to be among the likes of people like Kat Perkins, Michael Leier and Nicholas David and people that are just like me, they just want to live out their dream. It’s really cool to put in a group with those people.

HPR: How far do you want to take it? Are you just happy to be there or you in it to win it?

BJ: I think with any kind of competition, you want to win. Nobody goes into a competition thinking yeah I’d like to be third place, that’d be sweet. There’s nothing wrong with third place or second place for that matter. For me, I just want to stay in it as long as I can. And just keep playing real music for real people. That’s what it’s about for me and it’s just making as many fans and friends as I can and being able to when this is over go out with Liann and tour and bring good music to people who like good music. The goal for me initially was not to win the competition, it was to get involved with the competition and obviously we are there. When you achieve one goal, you set another goal. The goal now is to hopefully win the battle rounds and then we go from there.

HPR: As far as people here who want to support you the best things are to watch and vote every week for you, buy your Itunes singles from it when they come out and just retweet and share what you are putting out there on social media.

BJ: The retweets and shares help a lot. Follow me on twitter @theblindjoe and that’s my Facebook page and my Instagram as well. Follow me on there, buy the singles that come out and if you want to support me and Liann directly, go to blindjoe.com, we make all the CD’s ourselves. We have a shirt company in town Bone Skot Design that we are very proud to be affiliated with and have been for 10 years now. When you buy merchandise off blindjoe.com whether it be CD’s or shirts or anything else know that’s it all going back into the community and we’re very proud of that.

The Voice airs locally on KVLY Monday and Tuesday nights. Follow Blind Joe at blindjoe.com