Blind Joe’s run comes to an end

What’s next after The Voice?

Recently, local musician Blind Joe had his run on NBC’s The Voice come to an end when he was eliminated in the head-to-head round after advancing for a few weeks. His appearance stirred a great amount of passion in the region with some people really bummed out he didn’t go farther. HPR wanted to see what’s next for him in his career and how the show has affected things for him.

HPR: Your run on the Voice came to an end but it had to be a good experience for you, what are your emotions and thoughts now that it is all over?

Blind Joe: It was tough, it was kind of disappointing but I think it was the right time to go. I was getting to be a little under the weather and my nerves were pretty shot. It’s a very stressful experience. I am proud of the performance I gave, not too proud of the end of the song. I had my voice crack. Once I heard that, it made me miss a couple notes at the end there. I think Blake made the right decision. I think everybody has their off days, unfortunately my off day was in front of 15 million people. Crap happens but you know, you move on so it is what it is but I am happy I go to be a part of the show. I’m happy to be able to use it as a springboard to further my career.

HPR: I think you mentioned on Facebook right after it happened that you knew you had screwed up and probably lost. Was that just the nerves that got to you?

Blind Joe: I was sick at the time and I was nervous because of that. I think it was just a combination of things and going up against Barrett Baber, who is a phenomenal singer and a really great guy. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll probably say it a million more, I am not built for competition. I psyched myself out, got a little in my head and it is what it is.

HPR: It’s probably got to be a lot different too being used to performing in dark bars performing in front of people you barely see vs. a studio audience, bright lights and famous people judging you?

Blind Joe: That really didn’t bother me. Blake had told me to really give the best vocal I could and we had talked about me being used to playing in bars and really getting the crowd into it. This really wasn’t a get the crowd into type of thing. It was a little bit uncomfortable I guess but it’s a great song and I thought I did it justice up until the end anyways. It sucks, you never want to get eliminated from any competition but it’s opened so many doors for me. We’re just happy that we were a part of it. It’s really an awesome experience and we had a good time.

HPR: You mentioned it’s opened so many doors for you, what are some of the biggest effects you’ve seen from appearing on the show?

Blind Joe: We’re recognized pretty much everywhere we go and the shows are a lot bigger, they have a lot more people. I’ve been able to go to different schools around the community and been around the state. I do assemblies for kids about perseverance and determination and practice. We sing some songs, we have some fun, I tell some stories about things that I worked real hard in my childhood and was able to do. That’s really cool to me because I am glad I can spread a positive message and I try to help the kids understand that with a little bit of practice and a lot of determination, there’s really nothing that you can’t do. I mean if I can get on The Voice and impress people like Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani, there’s no reason anyone else can’t. Now we’ve got the Gofundme account that we’ve set up. We are trying to record a professional album. We’ve had that up for a just over a week now and we’re at almost $6,000 already and we would have never been able to that without The Voice and that address is http://gofundme.com/blindjoe We set that up because hopefully we are going to be doing some recording in January, professional recording. We’re trying to have the fans help out just because it costs so much money to get all that done. You are looking at $20,000 to $30,000 so we figure if we can get part of it from the fans and we’ll take the other part of it from our pockets and make a real rocking country record.

HPR: People from all over the country watched you and reached out to you via social media and what not. What are some of the most touching stories you heard about people being affected by your appearance?

Blind Joe: There’s been so many. I had a lot of people message me and say that they had been through hell in one way or another and my performance and my outlook on life and my humor has really inspired them to be the best person they could be. That’s just amazing.

HPR: I saw some little kid dress up as you for Halloween.

Blind Joe: It was a little girl in Grand Rapids, at St. Joe’s in Grand Rapids. I think there was a couple of other ones that people were telling me about so that’s definitely flattering. It’s kind of weird, not weird in a bad way but you know think about it, what would you do if somebody was like hey check it out, I am Chris Hennen for Halloween. You’d be like, what the hell? But it was very flattering and very cool.

HPR: I saw as well you are about to go on a nationwide tour as well right?

Blind Joe: Yeah, we are doing the East Coast leg now and going down South and stuff too. That will start off tomorrow in Baltimore, we’re actually in Pennsylvania right now. We start it off in Baltimore and we run all the way through Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, and then Florida in December and go back up towards home Michigan, Wisconsin and then we’ll end it in New York Mills, Minnesota which is one of my favorite spots to play. Those guys are really fun and pretty rowdy.

HPR: Tours are something you’ve done before but obviously after The Voice, I am sure you are hoping for bigger crowds and it probably makes a lot easier to book shows?

Blind Joe: It’s definitely easier and the crowds will definitely be there. Even just stopping at little truck stops and gas stations along the way, people recognize me and that’s really awesome. It gives you a great feeling that people are enjoying what you do as well as a great feeling that if this is happening, we haven’t even started the tour yet and chances are those shows that would normally be low attendance like a Monday night or a Tuesday night, we should do ok. That’s just because I’ve been on tours where we don’t do ok and that’s never fun for anybody.

HPR: So I guess if the biggest way people want to support you would be through the Gofundme, how long will that be up?

Blind Joe: That will be up until we reach the goal or until we decide to go record which we are thinking will be about mid-January. I don’t think we’ll take it down until then so that’s definitely the best way to do it and again that site is http://gofundme.com/blindjoe and if you donate $15 or more, when the record is done, we will send you a digital download code so you can download the record for free and you’ll get it before it’s even released.

HPR: What’s your next local gig in Fargo? You mentioned New York Mills, anything else closer than that?

Blind Joe: Not in Fargo so much, we’ll be around Fargo kind of. I think the closest to Fargo that we’ll come is New Year’s Eve in Walcott, ND at a little bar called Bruiser’s but that’s only 35-40 miles out of Fargo. Hopefully we can get people to make the trek and get a small town hotel room for the night and party down to some Blind Joe.

Follow Blind Joe online at https://www.facebook.com/theblindjoe/ or http://www.blindjoe.com