Reid Umstattd talks 'The Voice' Battle victory over Davison: I was in total shock, I almost passed out!

Reid Umstattd won his The Voice Battle against Davison for Adam Levine's team, and now he's opening up about the whole experience.


Reid, a 34-year-old musician from Austin, TX, defeated Davison, a 23-year-old superstore supervisor from California who currently resides in Little Rock, AR, in the Battle Round during Tuesday night's episode of The Voice's fourteenth season.

Adam asked the two guys to sing "Love on the Brain" by Rihanna, and Reid was ultimately declared the winner. Adam justified his decision by saying Reid surprised him every single time he sang.

When Reality TV World asked Reid if he was surprised to win the close Battle, he replied, "I was absolutely surprised."

Both artists owned the song and made it their own, but Blake Shelton actually admitted he thought Davison had the edge over Reid in the Battle. And Kelly Clarkson gushed about how Davison's runs were like "warm butter dripping off a biscuit in the summer."


"They cut so much out to cut down on time," Reid told Reality TV World of the footage shown in the episode, "and everybody leading up to Adam's decision was really more complimentary of Davison, which I thought was deserved. He's just such a phenomenal singer."

"I kind of felt a little bit out of my league the whole time that we were rehearsing and everything," Reid added. "So I just kind of assumed he'll win and hopefully I'll get stolen."

For his Blind Audition earlier in the season, Reid performed "Take Me to the Pilot," and both Adam and Alicia Keys pressed their buttons for him.

"Alicia turned around for me in the Blinds, so I was crossing my fingers for [getting stolen]. And so when Adam said my name instead of Davison's, I was really -- it took me like an hour to actually celebrate having gotten through because I was just so gutted that Davison hadn't won," Reid confessed.

"So yeah, it was a total shock! And my dad was there in the audience, and he thought I was about to pass out."


After letting out a laugh, Reid continued, "He said he looked at me and my face had gone white and he thought I was about to pass out. I was totally shocked, absolutely."

Before Adam informed Reid and Davison of his decision, he said that Davison could use some of his opponent's confidence.

"The confidence thing was a struggle for me, and that part of his feedback was really nice for me to hear just because I think for anybody who has to get up in front of a bunch of people to do anything, there are days when it's just kind of a struggle to believe that you are anything special," Reid explained. "So that was nice to hear from him."

But then Adam noted it wouldn't hurt Reid in turn to borrow some of Davison's passion, drive and determination.

When asked to explain what Adam meant by that comment, Reid said, "That's a really good question."


"The drive and passion part, I'm really not sure. I'm obviously passionate and I'm driven," he told Reality TV World with a modest laugh.

"So I really -- I guess I just disagree with that part of the feedback. [I agree] with the part where he talked about Davison being passionate, but I am passionate as well and I put everything I had into this too."

Reid reasoned, "So something might've come across, but that part of the feedback was just sort of something I had to roll with."

Reid also told reporters during the conference call that he had only heard his Battle song, "Love on the Brain," once or twice before in his life.

"I had definitely never sung the song. I love that style of music, but it's not the style I would have picked for myself. But it's something that was sort of fun to dive into. I just love to sing anything; that's kind of how I grew up, sharpening whatever tools I have and just singing whatever is on," Reid revealed.


"That's the fun thing when challenging yourself, is to kind of go out of your comfort zone and sing stuff that pushes you. So, the message of the song [is] the easiest way to get into any tune. You just have to interpret those lyrics however you can in order to make them feel most genuine."

Davison was unfortunately not stolen by another coach and so he was eliminated from the competition ahead of the Knockout Round.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski