Sundance Head was crowned Season 11's winner over initial frontrunner Billy Gilman.

ADVERTISEMENT

Sundance, formally known as Jason Head, was declared the champion of The Voice's eleventh season during the live finale broadcast on NBC.

Sundance, a 37-year-old musician from Houston, TX who currently resides in Porter, TX, was on Blake Shelton's team, marking The Voice coach's fifth win overall since Season 1. Sundance earned the title of "The Voice" as well as a recording contract. Ironically, he previously competed on American Idol but didn't make it to the finals.

During a recent conference call with reporters, Sundance talked about his The Voice experience and victory. Below is what he had to say. Check out Reality TV World's The Voice 11 page for more from his interview.

I was wondering if there are any songs in particular you would have loved to have covered during the show that you didn't get to and what they would be?

Sundance Head: I wanted to cover "Georgia on My Mind" and I had been asking if I could do it for about three weeks leading up to the finale. And I was just never able to do it, but it's one of my favorite songs of all time. And I really wanted to have the opportunity to do it on the show.

What's the best piece of advice that Blake gave you that you took to heart while on The Voice that you'll carry with you?

Sundance Head: For me it was just to believe in my own abilities and my own talent and trust what got me on to the show to begin with. And to also, you know, take each song and try to connect with an audience and to try to connect with the lyric as much as possible when covering a song. And I tried to do that the whole time.

During your post-show interview Tuesday night, you talked about how you felt like you were able to handle The Voice better than American Idol because you were older and more mature at this point. Could you be a little bit more specific and point to a couple of situations that you thought you handled better on The Voice then you might have if it was American Idol nine years ago?

Sundance Head: Well first of all, I didn't really have an identity as an artist even to myself. So that was the first major problem with the whole thing. And secondly, I didn't realize how important it was to pick a genre of music or a style of music and really to try to target a fan base and try to continually target that fan base.

On Idol I was all over the place, and really, none of it was any good. And I took a lot of lessons I learned from that and tried to apply them to my life going forward. So those are two of them. I mean, the list for me, we could talk about that all night long and it'd be a very lengthy interview.

Maybe one of these days we can get into that, but there's just so many things I did wrong on that show. As a person, I wasn't a very good person to begin with, so I was selfish about a lot of things.

You know, I've said before if I could meet myself again, I'd probably punch myself in the mouth. So not a very good dude, you know? But thankfully I've had a reprisal and I get a second shot and hopefully I can do things right this time.

Looking back, was there ever a week where you thought you might be going home?

Sundance Head: Well I didn't feel like I had a very strong performance on "Blue Ain't Your Color" to be honest with you. Whenever I went out to perform that song, my guitar was out of key in the beginning. So I wasn't sure what key I needed to start in.

And if you listen back to the actual performance, you can hear that something is wrong in the beginning. Luckily for me, Paul the bandleader bailed me out of there and gave me the right note on his piano when he wasn't even supposed to be playing.

But they're such professionals and I'm sure it's happened before. He immediately recognized what was going on and bailed me out. But it certainly was embarrassing for me and a moment that I would never like to have to go through again.

And what I did also learn, the most important part of that lesson for me, was when a show has a guitar tech and they bring you your guitar and you're going to go on stage it's in tune. You don't have to check it to make sure it's in tune, and that was my mistake.

I wanted to make sure it was in tune so I tried to double check it. And Jason Warrior was absolutely killing everybody in there on stage. So my tuner wouldn't pick up anything and I had already detoured. And so, I was just completely a mess. So that was the week I thought that was it for me really.

How did you feel when they told you that you were going to be singing with KISS? And then what was it like to actually take the stage with them?

Sundance Head: Well when they told me I couldn't -- I really was blown away that they agreed to do it, and even the fact that I was going to have the opportunity really was amazing. My brother took me to see them before he died a month before. And I rode his shoulders for the whole concert, so I've always had a really strong emotional bond with KISS, their music, and so I couldn't believe it.

And then when we ran through rehearsals, I was messing everything up. I just didn't know -- I was dropping lyrics. And I know all of their songs and every lyric to it. I mean, I could be the lead singer if I had to. But when the minute when we were standing there, I was just so amazed that it was actually happening, I didn't really know where I was.

The rehearsal was like one of the most intense things that ever happened to me. It was like the first time I had ever been alone with a girl in a bedroom as a teenager. I really just had no idea what to do and I was just so overthrown with emotions and it just was such a wreck.

Luckily, Paul and Gene were such sweet guys that they really talked to me and tried to calm me down and tell me, "Hey man, you know, we're just dudes like you man. And it's our honor to be up here with you. Just relax and, you know, take it easy."

And so, I was able to take their advice when the real performance went down. And still, I even got choked up a little bit. I didn't know if I was going to be able to actually sing because I was actually crying. But I don't think anybody could see that.

But as soon as I was standing underneath the drum riser before the intro started when they kicked in to "Detroit Rock City," I felt the risers moving. And the moment was so huge for me that I just for a second thought, "I can't even -- I can't possibly go out there." But I knew I absolutely had to, so I did it somehow.

But that besides marrying my wife and having three children, that's probably the fifth most important thing that's ever happened to me in my entire life, even more important than winning The Voice, I think, was just having an opportunity to play with KISS onstage as ridiculous as that sounds. That's how much it meant to me.

And I know that's an experience that no matter what happens -- if I go on to actually be famous or I don't do anything else for the rest of my life -- that's a moment in my life that I will never be able to have again. And I know that. And it's such a thrill. I'm just so thankful to NBC and The Voice that they allowed me that opportunity, and I'm so thankful that KISS would agree to do that.

Check out Reality TV World's The Voice 11 page for more from Sundance Head's post-show interview.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS