Sundance Head talks 'The Voice:' We McDonald is a seasoned pro and killer, one song changed everything for me

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


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 a portion of what he had to say. Check back with Reality TV World soon for more.

My favorite moment of the final performance show on Monday was the duet you did with Blake of your dad Roy Head's song. And I read that was a complete surprise to your dad, that he had no idea you were going to do that.


Sundance Head: That is true. I wanted to surprise him. I mean, he had caught wind of something because he was kind of poking around. He was asking what was going on and other stuff. And so, he knew something was up, but he didn't know really what was going to go down.

I was just so thankful that Blake would allow me to do that. I mean he wanted to do a duet song. They didn't know what song that we wanted to do together. They pitched a couple of songs to me. I had emailed Blake and said, "Hey buddy what do you think about doing 'Treat Her Right,' my dad's song on the show as a duet?"

And without fail, I mean, he emailed right back and his reply was, "Let's do it." And I was just so excited to have the opportunity to bring my dad joy on a national stage like that because I mean he's been doing music his whole life. And that's all he's done is bring happiness to people and joy through music.

And I know for me, personally he's been such a wonderful father and he's given me so many talents and told me so many things. It's like having a mentor every day that you can ask questions to and live with. And I know that I've been so blessed to have that opportunity. And I just was so thrilled to be able to bring him a little excitement.

It must have been gratifying to bring that song back to a huge audience, some of which may have never heard the song before and they were reintroduced to it?


Sundance Head: Yes. I was really gratified about that. And I still think that's one of the greatest songs ever. It's just a simple tune but it's got so much rock 'n roll in it and so much attitude and, you know, the hey heys in the chorus and the screaming he did in the song.

And to me, it was just one of the most iconic songs from the 60s I think, you know, of course I have a biased opinion obviously. I have him to thank for a lot of the talents that I have. He was much older than all of the other parents whenever I was growing up and he had been through a lot more. And so, he was always the cool dad.

He would treat me and my friends with a lot of respect, like we were just his buddies. And he introduced us to a lot of music that we probably would have never even heard there were, you know, maybe outdated for our generation or something of that nature.

But really we were fortunate to have him in our life to show us the records that he had and to spend the time to talk about what he liked about certain artists and why he thought their music was popular. And I certainly remember all of those conversations and try to use them every day when I have the opportunity.

Tell me about your song choices. How much of them were your ideas or Blake's idea? Did you and Blake collaborate on choosing every song?


Sundance Head: Most of the time, they were my ideas. I can tell you that "Me and Jesus" was Blake's idea. He said -- well the song per se wasn't, but to do a gospel song was totally his idea.

He said, "Sundance, I think right now is a good time for us to do a gospel song. I think people want to hear one right now. There's a lot going on in America right now and people are divided. And they don't really, I think, even know why anymore. And I think we just need to bring it back around and try to, you know, really have a positive message about love and unity and faith."

And so, I immediately said, "Well that's a great idea." And the original song that we were going to do was a different song. Let me see here, oh, "Oh Happy Day" was actually the one we were going to do first. But the song only had a verse and a chorus and it would just repeat and repeat and repeat.

So I told Blake, I said, "Man, I'm not sure that that's the right one." So we ended up going with "No One" by Alicia Keys that week, which was the backup song for me. That's the one I wanted to do, but Blake wanted to do the gospel.

So we were going to do "Oh Happy Day," but it didn't work out because the arrangement just -- there wasn't enough stuff going on. It was too simple. So we ended up doing "No one" by Alicia Keys. And that song really changed everything for me.


So then the very next week we went in to revisit the gospel theme. And we agreed to do was "Me and Jesus." I took it to my room and I immediately heard a bluegrass barnburner revival type of arrangement on it. I recorded it, emailed it over to him said, "What do you think?" And he goes, "Man I think it's great." We got with the band. We went over it. They equally liked it. And then, you know, the rest is history.

I told Blake from then on I said, "I know what we're going to do man. Every song that we have from now on until the end of time -- till the end of the show as long as I'm on it -- we're going to go out and we're going to sing songs that have positive messages about unity, love, respect, you know, anything that has to do with just really good vibes."

And so, I knew immediately what kind of ride we were going to take. So it really changed everything for us, I think. And it was a message that kind of stumbled upon us by accident but we immediately recognized it. And he as a coach immediately saw the demographic and knew that, that may be the demographic that we could win.

Of course middle America probably votes the most, you know, because East Coast is busy and West Coast is late. I mean that's a no-brainer really. So that's just one of those things that Blake knew. He just knew that. And his intuitions were right. And that's one of the reasons why he's the most winning coach of The Voice.

I really felt like just the Holy Ghost on that song man. I mean I joked about that. I wanted to have a religious mosh pit, but I felt like I was fired up man. I mean I was really fired up. I was shaking a little bit. I really felt moved during the performance.


What was your favorite performance from a contestant on another team?

Sundance Head: Oh man that's easy. Man that has to be [We McDonald] on the finale when she did that Broadway tune. I just really, I thought -- I saw her do that in rehearsal, "Don't Rain on My Parade" I believe is the name of it. When I seen that in rehearsal I mean, I've got to tell you, I've never seen anything like that.

And she's only 16 or 17-years-old. I could tell you right now I was completely blown away. And she's going to be famous. You guys, if there's anything that we're getting from this interview today, please make sure that you guys remember when I tell you that We McDonald is going to be famous. And that's the bottom line.

Her talent, I mean, just to be able to remember those lyrics I mean it was like three or four pages of lyrics. There were seven different tempo changes in that song. She delivered it like a master, like she had been doing it for 20 or 30 years. It was effortless to her. And you can see the love for music on her face.

I mean, she sang through her teeth while she was smiling. It's like she's a freaking seasoned pro, you know, she's a killer. And that's why I really thought that she was going to beat me. I would have not felt sad one minute. She definitely deserves to be in the limelight and she will be no doubt about it.

To read more from Sundance's post-show interview, as well as Reality TV World's exclusive interview with Billy Gilman, check out our The Voice page.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski