‘The Voice': Mitchell Lee Earns Spot on Team Blake With Hootie Cover [Watch]
The Voice Season 13 premiered Monday (Sept. 25) with coaches Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Miley Cyrus, and new girl on the block Jennifer Hudson. Country offerings were slim during the show's Blind Auditions premiere, but one performer managed to grab Shelton's attention with a nod to fellow country star Darius Rucker.
Mitchell Lee, a 29-year-old from Charleston, S. C., got all of the coaches save Cyrus to turn their chairs around with his rendition of Hootie and the Blowfish's 1994 hit "Hold My Hand."
Coach Levine started things off by saying, "First of all. Hootie — that singer has definitely traversed a lot of ground. He's doing simple pop, rock 'n' roll, and then moving into country ..."
"His name is Darius, 'that singer,'" Shelton broke in. "I'm just trying to help you because you didn't know his name."
"Darius Rucker, I know his name," retorted Levine. "I'm going to steal you. He's just trying to throw my flow off, but he's not going to succeed."
Shelton, however, did succeed in scoring Lee, who didn't hesitate very long in making a decision — probably not very surprisingly.
"You sound country to me," Shelton noted, "And that might just be the South Carolina coming out of your voice," to which Lee answered, "I can't lie, I'm pretty southern."
Season 13 of The Voice will air on Monday and Tuesday nights at 8PM ET on NBC.
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