One of the things that will get the judges to spin their chairs around on The Voice is if you combine genres or sing a song in a different arrangement or something similar of the sort. On the second round of blind auditions, Jesse Larson combined Prince and John Lennon on The Voice.
Let me explain – Jesse is a musician who used to play guitar for one of Prince’s protégés, so, um, how awesome is it that he knew Prince? If you know anything about Prince, which I’m sure you do, you know that he was an absolutely nasty guitar player, and it sure sounds like some of that got passed onto Jesse. For his song choice, Jesse chose the tune “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon, thereby combining both the funkiest man ever to grace the music industry (that guitar playing!) with a Beatle (that singing!). Like Adam Levine, I was also surprised that Adam was the only one who turned around for Jesse. Were the other judges not hearing what I was hearing (and Adam, too)? Did they miss something? Did I miss something? Whatever happened, Adam got Jesse on his team, and he’s going to have a wonderful time shaping this man’s sound.
And I’m glad that Jesse is able to live his dream now – four months after he started touring with Prince, his father passed away and he had to quit (understandably). Jesse took his father’s death very hard, and he says that only music could get him through it. I’m sure that Jesse’s father would be very proud of what he’s accomplished thus far, and he’ll be cheering for his son on The Voice, wherever he may be.
