People Magazine: The Voice (Oct. 2018)
The People Interview
The coaches and Carson Daly share their Voice triumphs, regrets & why ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ might be the perfect audition song
On a break from taping season 15 (airing from Sept. 24), coaches Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Clarkson and host-producer Carson Daly gathered on The Voice’s Universal City soundstage to talk together exclusively with People. In a candid and laughter-filled exchange, they revealed annoying habits, the biggest changes since season 1 and what they believe makes a winner. (Hint: It’s not what you might think.)
Do you guys ever do much together away from the camera?
KELLY CLARKSON: We all have children, so that’s hard. If I’m not here, I’m trying to catch my children.
CARSON DALY: This week we’re spending 16 hours a day on the set. So that’s our time together. The minute the whistle blows, it’s children and tours and back to life. Then we come back together for the battle and knockout rounds. So when we’re together, we’re really together.
Does anyone have a little personal habit that annoys everyone else?
KC: I like talking.
CD: Oh, boy...
JENNIFER HUDSON: She likes talking!
BLAKE SHELTON: JHud is a lowtalker.
JH: What does that mean?
BS: I agree to a lot of things that I’m not even sure of.
JH: So I mumble?
BS: When we’re in the chairs, she talks to me and I’m going, “Oh yeah, yeah.” And the next thing you know I’m wearing a pirate shirt. Like Seinfeld. Finally yesterday she goes, “S—, you can’t hear!”
JH: He can’t hear! I wonder if the contestants know Blake can’t hear.
[Laughter all around]
ADAM LEVINE: That explains a lot. I must annoy everyone a little bit.
KC: He [indicating Adam] has to have the last word. It’s a nice play—he wins a lot of people over. You haven’t lost a lot this season in the blinds.
AL: I haven’t. I’ve had one bad day but then two really good ones. I’ve gotten a lot of people.
KC: The last word does work.
AL: It’s a technique we realized over time. Usually whoever has the last word gets the person. However, occasionally someone will not say a word at all and gets the person.
JH: Kelly!
AL: When Kelly was the most quiet she’d been all season, she got one of the best people.
KC: Dude! I was quiet two times, and yeah, I’m never quiet.
BS: It’s a sign. It’s a sign from God for you to stop talking so much.
CD: I’m with the families when this is all happening. There are times when I ask families in that last minute, “All right, who are you going to pick?” It was going one way the whole time, maybe they said Kelly is their favorite. And then Adam will win them over. In fact, it happened just the other day. He wills it to happen.
BS: In other words, “If I pick you as my coach, will you shut the hell up?” That’s what’s going on in their mind.
AL: I like to think I have endurance.
If you competed in the blind auditions, what song other than one of your own would you want to perform?
KC: This is a funny question for me and Jennifer because we’ve done it.
AL: I forgot you guys did that!
BS: “Cheeseburger in Paradise” by Jimmy Buffett.
[Laughter]
AL: “Honey Bee” by Blake Shelton.
JH: I like that song!
BS: If you did “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” you’d definitely get all the coaches’ attention.
AL: Depends on what kind of attention you want. Not all attention is good attention.
BS: We’ve turned around for people’s song choices before.
AL: That was back when we could afford to turn around for comic relief.
KC: Mine would be “Songbird” by Eva Cassidy.
BS: “Eat It.” [by Weird Al Yankovic] [Adam and Blake laugh]
AL: Or [Yankovic’s] “Amish Paradise.”
JH: I’d pick a song that I felt showcased my voice. I wouldn’t necessarily be thinking about anything else.
AL: Can I ask a really important question? [To Blake, holding two bottles of an energy drink] Do two 5-Hour Energys mean 10-hour energy?
BS: We’re about to find out.
CD: I think you should space those out.
BS: I’ve got a low tank right now. I went to Gwen’s thing last night. [Gwen Stefani’s concert in Las Vegas]
AL: How was it?
BS: It was incredible!
KC: I bet I know more songs than you.
AL: There’s no bigger fan of Gwen than me. Me and my wife.
KC: Uh, I’m sorry. I knew her from “Trapped in a Box.”
AL: Oh, wow. “Trapped in a Box.”
KC: Thanks for playing.
If you were to compete, who would you want to turn around first?
CD: J Hud and Kelly. For sure. They have two of the best voices ever in the history of music. If they turned, that would be the ultimate validation.
BS: Thanks.
Who would you least want as a coach?
CD: Blake. For sure. Because if I was on his team, we’d just party and hang out and drink beers and talk.
AL: Either Jennifer or Kelly because they are talented.
JH: [.Laughing] Because Blake’s not?
BS: I would want CeeLo to coach me.
AL: I’m joking. No, you know what? I might go with Blake because he’d be a really great coach. But if I wanted to be a better vocalist in a very technical way, I’d go with one of you guys.
BS: I’d like to see you with Christina...
AL: Potentially.
BS:... as a coach for this interview.
KC: I would pick Blake because I’d want to sing country and soul, and he’s won with both. And I like Gwen.
JH: I want to go with all of them.
What singer surprised you the most from how they were at the beginning to where they ended up?
AL: Probably [season 7’s] Craig Wayne Boyd. You couldn’t have told me in a million years that kid was going to win. Usually we have some semblance of an idea who is going to win. I was like, “What?” Where he started compared to where he finished.
CD: It was a full transformation.
AL: Honestly, Blake, I can’t knock you. You turned that into a victory. You cleaned him up.
BS: Gwen cleaned him up.
AL: You took it away from me that year, by the way. Matt McAndrew [see page 44] should have won.
BS: That’s what they pay me to do. [Biggest surprise?] Danielle Bradbery, from my team. I can barely remember her in the blind auditions. And then all of a sudden, she blew up like a rocket, you know?
AL: She went from nothing to one of the better singers I’d heard in my life singing live. As far as live vocals, you know how hard it is to nail it. This girl would nail it smiling.
BS: She didn’t know to be afraid of a note.
KC: That’s why I like young ones too. They’re not afraid because they don’t know to be afraid.
AL: I knew to be afraid when I was young which is why I don’t under¬ stand kids anymore.
KC: The one that shocked me is “Rayshun Nation.” [Rayshun LaMarr, season 14.] I was a fan of his, but he survived longer than I thought he would. It proves that it does become about character and the fun and the joy they’ve brought. He was so joyous.
CD: He sang every performance like it was his last performance.
KC: Amen!
CD: I thought [season 13’s] Chloe Kohanski was the same way. She was good in the beginning, but by the end she was Jennifer Lawrence to me—a star in every way, shape or form.
AL: Some people kind of rise throughout the process. Some people start there and stay there. Starting there and staying there is harder and harder, I think, on the show.
CD: I agree with that.
AL: The winner used to emerge in the blinds. More or less.
BS: Even in season 1, we knew even though we had no experience.
AL: We knew Javier [Colon] was going to win.
CD: It’s harder now. There have been so many four-chair turns in the last five seasons that it’s not as obvious.
Has the key to winning changed?
AL: What’s happening is we’ve educated people’s opinions about it. In the beginning, it was, “He’s the best. We love him.” And [the audience would] just choose him. But now the things people have learned as a result of us talking incessantly has become a part of it. We’ve actually exposed a lot about the craft of singing.
CD: Also, season 1, nobody thought they’d get a chair to turn. Now people are like, “I’m going to get four chairs...”
KC: They do?
CD: Oh yeah. They’re very confident.
JH:They say that?
So the attitude has changed, since they’ve seen the show for eight years?
BS: [Chuckling] Those millennials, I tell ya...
CD: If you have a 17-year-old, all they’ve known is The Voice. They just see chairs turning, and that’s the new bar. Never mind getting on a TV show. I’ve been with families where one chair turns, but they’re upset if another one didn’t. I’m like, “You’re on the show! You made it!” Their expectations are much higher than they were seasons 1 through 5.
KC: I will say that there have been times even recently where we’ve turned around and I’ve been so into somebody and then like once they’ve started talking, I was like, “Wow.”
JH: Yeah. It makes you not want to...
KC: It’s like a super-entitled thing. It’s good. Confidence is key. You have to have it. I even like a bit cocky. That’s fun to play with. But sometimes... there was one instance I was thinking about...
CD: You wanted to turn your chair back around?
KC: “Don’t pick me! Don’t pick me!”
[Laughter around the table]
CD: “Does this thing work in reverse?” That would be interesting.
Has that happened where you turn and it’s a little bit “Oh no...”
AL: Chair-turner’s remorse?
BS: It happens every season.
CD: Buyer’s remorse. Wouldn’t that be an interesting ploy if you could get out of it? If you don’t like what a kid is saying, you could be like, “I’m out.” I want to pitch that. You get maybe one or two per blind.
How do you deal with it?
BS: There is no way. You still have to do your job. But nine times out of 10, people with that mentality never really last that long. If they won’t listen to at least a little bit of constructive criticism, they derail themselves.
AL: Exactly. Every one of us in any profession, any success you’re going to have, it’s somewhat collaborative. You’re going to have to talk and listen. Once someone stops listening completely and there’s no back and forth, I’ll let them do whatever they want, because that’s going to send them home. I’ll check out. Once they don’t want to hear your opinion, you can let them go through it on their own.
BS: They go from whatever they did at home, and having 200 Twitter followers to having 5,000 overnight. To them...
JH: That’s making it.
BS: They’re like a household name. “I did it!” It depends on their personality, how they handle that, you know? Some people really think, “I’ve got it! I did it! That’s all I need!”
AL: They think it fast, man!
KC: It gives us a golden opportunity. Everybody last season kept going [to eventual winner Brynn Cartelli], “Brynn, you’re amazing!” Every chance I got, I’d look her in the face and say, “Hey! Let me tell you what’s going to help you most of all...”
AL: You’re not that amazing?
{Laughter around the table]
KC: No! Not drinking your own Kool-Aid. Don’t stop learning. Don’t think that you’ve figured it out. That’s part of the coaching aspect.
CD: You end up learning a lot more than singing on the show.
AL: That’s different. Guiding a person who you really like and are getting along with is totally different. I’m talking about when someone is, like, being a pest. If you’re gonna be a pest, you can do whatever song you want. It’s going to sink you and I don’t care.
BS: There are other kids on your team ready to do the work and listen.
JH: You invest in somebody who wants to be invested in this.
AL: If I like somebody. I’m even more protective in that way. I’m like, “Dude, ignore the hatred, please!”
Do you have any technique for psyching your people up to perform?
BS: I stopped doing that season 1. I was so wrapped up in the competition that I ran up on the stage when [second-place finalist] Dia Frampton was about to do her finale. And I said, “Hey, sis! I want you to know this is yours to lose.” She goes, “What does that mean, ‘mine to lose’?” She didn’t understand. I started going, “What the hell did I just say to her?”
[Laughter all around]
AL: Does that crush you to know that potentially that little piece of bad coaching is what did her in?
KC: If I’m Dia Frampton, my brain went, “Did you just say, ‘If you lose, it’s all on you?’”
BS: Exactly. In my mind I knew what I meant, which was “You’re ahead!” Basically. It looked like I crushed her.
JH: The biggest thing is to make sure they don’t get inside their own heads and overthink things.
AL: So the opposite of what Blake did?
JH: He just picked the wrong words. “Lose.” No one wants to hear that. I like to let them know, “This is your dream. There is no right or wrong. If you’re nervous, you can’t be your best. So just chill. Just sing the song.”
What have you learned from the people that you’ve coached?
KC: I learned something from all of them but specifically with Brynn, because she was so young and I was young when I was on my show. Not to get all cheesy, but seeing that innocence and excitement and drive is inspiring.
BS: I’ve learned that some people, even if they’re extremely talented, are cut out for this and most of them just aren’t. This business is weird. That aligning-of-the-stars thing, where you look at somebody and know they have this thing about them, is the one thing nobody is ever going to figure out.
JH: Watching their journeys, you rethink yours. And you learn: I sit in the audition process and go, “I like that approach. I’m going to try that too.” Not everybody may come to win. Their dream could just be in meeting Adam. I feel like so many things are accomplished, even for the viewers.
AL: The most profound thing I learned came early on when I realized I had an area of expertise. Not once had I considered myself to be anyone that could mentor anybody.
CD: That’s crazy you’d feel that way because you have so much to offer.
JH: You don’t see yourself in that way.
CD: I knew you’d be a great father the same way. When we started the show, you didn’t have kids or a wife.
AL: I was like this single dude who never thought about helping anybody with their career because I was too hyper-focused on my own. I kind of had to grow up a little bit and do a job and provide a service for other people and teach them things I knew and play this crazy game.
BS: Can I put the emphasis on “grow up?”
CD: One thing I’m always impressed by is that talent alone won’t make it. I meet people who have survived health issues, natural disasters, economic hardships, you name it. I’m inspired by the parents, the friends, the brothers. You cannot go it alone.
KC: Not to be cheesy again—I’m the Hallmark one of the group. But it’s cool to work with Carson, who not only started out loving music, but his whole career has been supporting art.
BS: He’s helped introduce new artists too, broken their songs on the radio.
KC: That’s a lot of the heart of the show.
CD: That’s sweet of you.
KC: We can all joke, but everyone here loves music.