From Upper Cumberland to the Voice Stage, Jake Hoot Shares His Journey to Victory

Backroads and Backstories with Paul Bailey

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Jake Hoot’s parents are missionaries. The family lived in the Dominican Republic for over 10 years.Hoot left the Dominican Republic to play football at Tennessee Tech. @1:25
• Hoot’s dad wanted him to lead praise and worship for the church, so he taught himself guitar. @4:22
• He plays guitar by ear. His music is inspired by Southern gospel hymns and the music in the Dominican Republic he heard growing up. @5:24
• “Cookeville’s just been incredible, and I can’t thank everybody enough for all the love and support they’ve given me throughout the years” -Jake Hoot @7:27
• The Voice producers reached out to Jake Hoot to audition for the show. @10:00
• Over 40,000 people auditioned for Season 17 of the Voice. @13:07
• For the blind auditions, Hoot sang “When it Rains, it Pours,” by Luke Combs. Kelly Clarkson turned her chair and became his coach for the season. @19:02
• Hoot says that he learned a lot from the Voice experience and it helped him gain more confidence in himself. @24:57
• When the tornado hit Cookeville, a lot of people from the Voice reached out to Hoot to check on him and his family. @28:08
• “I think I had just gotten in a space in my head to where I was just like God's been good to me, too, at this point. I can’t complain, I’ve gone way further than I ever thought, and so I’m just going to go out there and enjoy it.” - Jake Hoot @33:52
• Winning season 17 of the Voice was a surreal and amazing experience for Hoot. @36:57
• Hoot left his job at Zimmer Broadcasting to focus on independently working on his record. @41:29
• Hoot is releasing a song he wrote with Jimmy Fortune called, “Tennessee Strong.” All proceeds will go to the Tornado Relief Fund. @44:27

Transcript

Announcer: For the politics of Nashville, to the history of the Upper Cumberland, this is the Backroads and Backstories podcast, with Senator Paul Bailey.

Senator Bailey: Welcome back to the podcast. I’m your host, Senator Paul Bailey. In today’s episode, we have invited the winner of season 17 of The Voice, Cookeville resident Jake Hoot to talk about his experience on the show and to get to know him a little better. Welcome, Jake.

Jake Hoot: Hey, thank you for having me.

Senator Bailey: Glad that you’re here. And we’re just so excited that you’re part of our podcast, and our podcast is called Backroads and Backstories, and most of the time folks want to hear the backstory to exactly how you got to be on The Voice, telling us a little bit about yourself and your history because folks always want to be able to relate to someone that’s a big superstar like you are today.

Jake Hoot: [laughing].

Senator Bailey: So, we’re going to jump right in. And Jake, just tell us a little bit about yourself and where you’re originally from, and I think your family, basically were missionaries—

Jake Hoot: Yes, sir.

Senator Bailey: —and you guys lived in the Dominican Republic. So, I’m just going to step back for just a moment and let you tell us a little bit about yourself.

Jake Hoot: Yes, sir. No, yeah. So, I’m one of nine kids, I’m the second oldest of nine.

Senator Bailey: Nine kids. Oh wow.

Jake Hoot: Nine kids, six boys, three girls. And Mom and Dad, I think it was shortly after I was born, Mom and Dad got really involved in church, and Dad felt called to be a pastor, and then he felt called to be a missionary. And so, we moved all over the place when we were kids. And then we ended up, we’re originally from Corpus Christi, Texas, so way down south, and then we ended up moving to Haiti, when—I think it was back in ’97 or something like that—and lived there about a month or two, and my sister is a type one diabetic and so couldn’t get her medical help, and so we moved over to the Dominican side, right across the border for a short while.

And Dad just felt like that’s where God was calling us. And so we ended up living there, well my parents lived there 14 years, I lived there about 11 years before I moved back to the US and came to Tennessee Tech to play football, and—

Senator Bailey: Okay, so you came from the Dominican Republic to Tennessee Tech?

Jake Hoot: Yes, sir.

Senator Bailey: So, did you play football in the Dominican Republic?

Jake Hoot: I did not. I did not. I always wanted to play—of course, we played backyard football, you know us boys, there was enough of us to play, and we’d get kids from down there to play but I’d always wanted to play and I was bound and determined to play somewhere. And so, I think my size helped, being 6’6”. You walk in, say you want to play, Coach Brown and Coach Sam over there were very patient with me and gave me a shot.

Senator Bailey: So you were a walk-on?

Jake Hoot: Yes, sir.

Senator Bailey: Okay, so you’re a walk-on at Tennessee Tech?

Jake Hoot: Yes, sir.

Senator Bailey: And I’m assuming they were able to offer you a scholarship then to be able to play or did you—

Jake Hoot: I had to earn it. Yes, sir. It took me a little while, but I ended up earning a partial scholarship, and that was incredible, the fact that they let me play, much less, were essentially paying me to play. But—not pay me to play, but giving me money for school and whatnot. But no, it was an incredible experience. I loved every second of it. Love everybody from that organization. You’re still a family. I saw Coach Brown a couple months back at the welcome home concert, and I love that man and respect him.

Senator Bailey: Yeah, well cool. Well, so you basically came to Tennessee Tech and your family still lives in Texas? Or they’re in Dominican Republic, or—

Jake Hoot: Well, they moved up here.

Senator Bailey: Oh, so your entire family’s here now.

Jake Hoot: Yes, sir, they live down the road in Smith County in the Carthage area. Yeah, we had moved up here before we moved to Haiti, and joined Cornerstone Baptist Church right out in Carthage. And that was our sending church the entire time, and then when they all moved back, they just they moved out there, so they live about 45 minutes away.

Senator Bailey: So tell me just a little bit, were you inspired by living there in the Dominican Republic to lead praise and worship? Is that where your musical inspiration began?

Jake Hoot: And, in certain essence, yeah. I think rather than being inspired, I think Dad kind of forced me to get into it. And I’m glad he did, it kind of made me get out of my shell. And I liked—

Senator Bailey: You’re not saying that you ...