“Classic, Perfect Cowboy” Rowdy Shea Got 3 Chairs & Let His Wife Pick His Coach
As Michael Bublé noted, "Happy wife, happy life."
Coach Gwen Stefani wanted a country singer on her team for Season 26 of The Voice. What she got was the “classic, perfect cowboy” — though she has the cowboy’s wife to thank, as singer Rowdy Shea let his new bride do the honors when it came time to pick which Coach he’d go with.
Shea, whose Blind Audition featured in the second episode of the season on Monday night, is “from the great state of Kentucky, but currently lives in the great state of Texas.” He explained that he works on a ranch, covering some 85,000 acres and looking after 500 horses. It was on the ranch, when he was 20, that Shea began singing.
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“Growing up I wanted to be a horse trainer,” Shea explained. “But being on the ranch I was alone a lot, so I kind of found music.”
Shea started playing rodeos, and eventually lassoed himself a chance to compete on The Voice during Blind Auditions, where he sang Toby Keith’s "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This,” a cut from the country singer’s 1999 album How Do You Like Me Now?!
Watch Rowdy Shea’s Performance of Toby Keith’s “You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This” During Blind Auditions for The Voice Season 26
He didn’t have to sing for too long before Stefani hit her button to spin her chair, saying to herself “That’s pretty, I’m gettin’ it.” Michael Bublé was the only other Coach to turn his chair, following Stefani.
Notably, Reba McEntire, the country legend among the Coaches, did not turn her chair. She briefly bonded with Shea because she has a longhorn steer named Rowdy, and she said that she might get a chance to steal Shea later in the competition, “and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
“I am so grateful that Reba did not push,” Stefani explained. “You almost feel so defeated even before you try to pick a fight for somebody that’s country, rightfully, because she is the queen.”
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“I wanted to get myself a cowboy and I didn’t know it was going to be, like, a classic, perfect cowboy when you turned around,” Stefani said of Shea, adding that his voice was warm and smooth, and that he had an “adorable stage presence.”
Bublé asked if Shea was strictly a country singer or if he was open to taking things in a more pop direction, to which the cowboy explained that he’d like to “stay in the country realm,” but acknowledged that “country music’s changing a ton and you’ve got to be able to adapt,” expressing a willingness to bridge different genres.
When it came time to choose between the two coaches, Shea brought out his wife, Jaci, who he married only a week before the Blind Auditions. It was Jaci who decided that her husband would join Team Gwen.
“Rowdy is a real genuine, authentic country singer. He sounds believable when he’s singing,” Stefani said. “He is exactly what I was looking for.”
How can you watch The Voice?
Catch new episodes of The Voice next Monday and Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. ET on NBC. Every episode also arrives on Peacock the next day!
