by Gina Scarpa

 

This week, on the finale of The Voice, it was a night of victory for Blake Shelton. His two artists, Terry McDermott and Cassadee Pope, were the last two standing and one would be named the winner before the night was over. Thanks to a solid fan base and her domination of the iTunes charts, Cassadee emerged victorious but we have a feeling this isn't the last we've heard from fan favorite Terry! We talked to him in an exclusive interview about the long journey that brought him to The Voice, his success on the show, and his plans going forward.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: How did you decide to try out for The Voice? Did you watch seasons 1 and 2?

A. Terry: Actually, no. I think of all the people on the show, I was the least knowledgable about previous seasons. I was out on the road with my band and found out our tour had been pulled. That same week, I got a call saying, "Would you be interested in going on The Voice?" and it seemed like a no brainer! I probably had some preconceptions about being on the show, which I'm pleased to say was completely blown out of the water.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: During finale week, your dad spoke about how long you've been doing music and how he wanted to see you succeed on the show. Tell us about what you were doing before The Voice and how things went, musically, for you.

A. Terry: First of all, I'm from Aberdeen so for us to come where we came from and end up on one of the biggest record labels in the world was incredible. What we realized was that it's not just about making a record or the opportunity to work with the label. There's a hundred other things that had to go right and that was the biggest problem. We actually asked to get off the label and things got more difficult after that. The logical thing was to wrap it up and try a different direction. I ended up with some of the guys in Candlebox and I started a new band with them. I played SXSW last year and we've been touring since.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You certainly received a lot of compliments, not just from your coach Blake Shelton, but from all of the coaches. What did that feedback mean to you?

A. Terry: To stand there with their praise ringing in your ears is nothing short of an honor. I'm certainly not tired of hearing it!

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Is there a song that you felt was your defining moment in the competition?

A. Terry: Yeah, I would've said, "Maybe I'm Amazed" but then I did "I Wanna Know What Love Is" and I feel like that changed the game for me. I think that did so well on iTunes at absolutely the right time. If there was a song that hadn't connected through iTunes, I would've been done for.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You really did build quite a following and fan base as the season went on. What has that support meant to you?

A. Terry: You can really only be judged as an audience. iTunes is king as we learned and I learned the hard way. Picking the right songs that resonate with people was key. I'm so grateful for the depth of support, faith, and love that's sent in my direction. It's overwhelming that America should take a funny accented foreigner to heart. It was beyond my wildest expectations that a Scotsman would still be standing there.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: When you were standing next to Cassadee, in the last few moments of the finale, what was going through your mind? Did you think you had won?

A. Terry: Like I said, iTunes is king and it is a slightly different twist this year. Seeing the numbers gave us a strong indication of what would happen on elimination night. Cassadee was sitting there at number one again. Being number five of four, normally, I'd be delighted by Cassaddee was crushing it as usual. We all talked about it. Me and Nicholas told her we knew it would be her and that we thought it would be the right thing. We're very happy for her.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What's next and when will we be hearing more from you?

A. Terry: On the most basic level, I have to make more music. I haven't been making music while I was on The Voice. I've been in a band since I was 16 and my passion's always been writing music. I've had some success at it and now I've got to use this opportunity to get success. How I'm going to do it is an open book. It's a position I never frankly expected. I'm comfortable with being a solo artist, which I never thought I'd be a year ago.

 

 

(Image courtesy of NBC)

 

 

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