{"id":1318082,"date":"2020-02-05T08:26:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T15:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1817500"},"modified":"2020-02-05T08:26:22","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T15:26:22","slug":"jake-hoot-the-backstage-qa-at-the-opry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/jake-hoot-the-backstage-qa-at-the-opry\/","title":{"rendered":"Jake Hoot: The Backstage Q&A at the Opry"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

by Alison Bonaguro<\/a><\/span>
\n17m ago<\/span>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

On Tuesday night (Feb. 4), Jake Hoot did something he\u2019s never done before.<\/p>\n

He took the stage at the Grand Ole Opry to make his debut, just about six weeks after his big win on The Voice<\/em> on December 17. And while he admitted that nothing could be quite as nerve wracking as playing for the backs of those now-iconic four red chairs, Hoot was still a little uneasy about walking onto the legendary circle of oak on the Opry stage. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the sense of being absolutely terrified,\u201d Hoot told me when we caught up backstage at the Opry before his debut, \u201cit would be singing to the backs of those four chairs. But I will say there\u2019s more of a spiritual sense here at the Opry. You just know it\u2019s something special. There was something about walking out on the stage today that had me crying like a baby. I was looking around at all the sections, being like, \u2019I sat there. I sat there. I sat there.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo to be on the stage knowing I get to play, it\u2019s like there\u2019s this humbling spirit about it. And I wonder if that oak circle could talk. Imagine the stories it could tell. I\u2019m nervous about tonight, but it\u2019s a different kind of nervous: I want to give it my best and stay humble about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond his reverence for the Opry, Hoot shared with me everything that made him the man he is today. <\/p>\n

CMT.com: You grew up with eight siblings. What was that like? Did that kind of a big family shape you into the man you are now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hoot: We had our own baseball team. We had our own football team. So the combination of that, and growing up in a third world country, and having the kind of parents my parents were \u2014 that all played into it. My family definitely gave me that drive. And I\u2019m the second oldest, so naturally I\u2019m very protective. <\/p>\n

I know you learned to love music when your family was living in the Dominican Republic, but you\u2019ve been a little bit of everywhere, right? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. It went: Corpus Christi, Oklahoma, Corpus again, Tennessee, Haiti, Dominican Republic and then back to Tennessee. <\/p>\n

All because your parents were doing mission work. What role models they must\u2019ve been for you and your brothers and sisters. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The way we grew up made me who I was. I was blown away when we got to the United States and we had electricity 24,7. And I remember when one of my brothers stepped on grass for the first time when we were in the U.S., and he was like, \u201cDad, what is this?\u201d We just weren\u2019t used to that kind of stuff, and that influenced me. There were moments when I thought that the things my mom and dad did were the norm, and then come to find out that there\u2019s not a whole lot of people like that. <\/p>\n

Are you trying to follow their lead, and set that same kind of example for your own girls? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll never be as selfless as my parents are. But you strive to be. As a parent, that\u2019s obviously something you pray for. I pray my girls Macy and Hadley will always put others first. Next month, I\u2019m going on a mission trip to Nicaragua, and I want them to see that. But you also can\u2019t force anybody to give back. They just need to see that not everybody is well off, but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re any less happy. That\u2019s something I pray about every day. <\/p>\n

I know you have called Cookeville, Tennessee home since you went to college there. But with a future in country music, have you thought about making the move to Nashville? <\/strong><\/p>\n

No ma\u2019am. Cookeville has been great for me. It\u2019s so beautiful, and the people are so kind and so giving. It\u2019s growing, but still has that small town feel. It\u2019s a very special place. I thought I\u2019d want to leave after I graduated from Tennessee Tech, but now I don\u2019t know why I\u2019d ever want to leave. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about that decade between college graduation and The Voice<\/em>. What were you doing for a living? <\/strong><\/p>\n

During college breaks, I\u2019d worked in a zinc mine, on a demolition crew in New Orleans, then with an electric crew in Houston. So I stayed busy. And then when I graduated, I had offers to teach, but I really wanted to get out and do something outside the classroom. So I started doing electrical work, and did that for a while. Then I got a job in heating and air, and did that for a while. And then I heard about a job opening at the radio station one day, and thought that would be a good opportunity. I\u2019ve been there for six years now. <\/p>\n

Wait. You have a day job?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, ma\u2019am. I\u2019m a sales executive for the radio stations in Cookeville (WGSQ and WKSW). Being on The Voice<\/em> has been hard because I love spending time with my clients. Just going to sit and talk and catch up and what not. It\u2019s all about building those relationships. God tells us to be good stewards of what were given, and so I actually want to see my clients succeed. But now, I get there and people want to take pictures and get my autograph. Which is awesome, and I\u2019m grateful, but that makes it hard to get my work done. <\/p>\n

While you were on the show, you chose some really solid country songs. Ones that were a little obscure, and aren\u2019t the obvious modern country go-tos. Did you choose those tunes, or did they choose you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

In some situations, you don\u2019t have any say. In some, Kelly (Clarkson) gave me complete control. I think her being in our shoes before gives her a different kind of appreciation for what we\u2019re doing. She would come up to us and say, \u201cWhat song do you<\/em> want to sing?\u201d She gave me a ton of creative control. I\u2019d always think, \u201cIf I make it past this round, I want to do this song.\u201d So when it came to \u201cThat Ain\u2019t My Truck,\u201d there\u2019s such a hunger for that kind of music right now. Luke Combs is bringing that style back. It\u2019s not flashy. You just get out there and sing what\u2019s in your heart. <\/p>\n

I can see a lot of similarities between you and Luke Combs. And obviously, when you chose his \u201cWhen It Rains It Pours\u201d for you blind audition, you must\u2019ve been confident that that was the kind of thing that would make you get someone to turn around. Were you surprised that Blake Shelton did not?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No. Because honestly, I went into the whole thing thinking it was fake from the get-go. Every step of the way I was like, \u201cThis is fake.\u201d Until they flew me out to LA for the first time. But even then I was like, \u201cI\u2019m not gonna make it.\u201d There was so much talent. You hear all that and think that there\u2019s no way. All I wanted to do was give it my best shot. I wanted a chance to be on that stage. That\u2019s all. Even if nobody turned around. When I started the song, though, I did start hoping Blake would turn around. Just because I love him and his music. Then when Kelly turned around, I was like, \u201cI\u2019m still in this thing somehow.\u201d Of course, Kelly told me that later on Blake was kicking himself.<\/p>\n

\n
Alison makes her living loving country music. She’s based in Chicago, but she’s always leaving her heart in Nashville. <\/div>\n

@alisonbonaguro<\/a> <\/div>\n

via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alison Bonaguro 17m ago On Tuesday night (Feb. 4), Jake Hoot did something he\u2019s never done before. He took the stage at the Grand Ole Opry to make his debut, just about six weeks after his big win on The Voice on December 17. And while he admitted that nothing could be quite as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1318082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 04:20:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}