Jake Hoot is returning to The Voice! After winning Season 17 in 2019, Hoot will return for Season 29 for The Voice: Battle of Champions, an all-star season featuring other previous contestants. Hoot will be joined by Renzo, Maelyn Jarmon, Javier Colon, Jordan Smith, and Girl Named Tom, who will compete with new contestants.
Kelly Clarkson, Adam Levine, and John Legend will be the three coaches, marking the first time there is not a fourth coach in the show’s history. The returning contestants will compete against each other, with former coach Cee Lo Green determining the winner.
“Coming back to The Voice is incredibly special,” says Hoot. “The show changed my life, and it’s an honor to return at a point where I’m clearer than ever about who I am as an artist. I am so grateful to the Lord for the opportunities and open doors He has put before me. This truly feels like a full-circle moment. I am so thankful.”
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What Jake Hoot Says About Being On ‘The Voice’
Winning a show like The Voice is a bucket-list item for almost any singer, including Hoot. Still, he admits it was also a challenge, after the show changed almost everything for him.
“I tell people the story of how I opened for Darius Rucker in Knoxville to 10,000 people and walked off the stage to a standing ovation,” Hoot recalls to Cookeville Lifestyle. “We felt like rock and roll stars. Then, our next show was a two-day drive to a casino in South Dakota, and there were nine people in the seats.
“Those are the mental hurdles that nobody tells you about,” he continues.” You think of all these things that you could face, but when you go from extreme highs to extreme lows, those are the big mental hurdles that you’ve got to deal with.”
Jake Hoot’s “I Would’ve Loved You” Single With Kelly Clarkson
Hoot not only won The Voice, on Clarkson’s team, but he also released a hit single, “I Would’ve Loved You,” with her as well.
“When we wrote it, I said, ‘I think this would be awesome if we got Kelly to sing on this,’” Hoot tells Everything Nash of the song, which he wrote with Lonestar’s Dean Sams and Jamie Floyd. “When I was on The Voice, she said, ‘Hey, let’s do something together.’ So I sent it to her, and didn’t hear anything. And then later on in the year, when we were seriously considering putting this on the album, I said, ‘You know what? I’m just going to text her again,’ because I had to ask her a couple of questions about other things.”
Fortunately, when Hoot reached otut again, it was an immediate yes from Clarkson.
“She called me back immediately, and she said, ‘I want to shout this from the rooftops. Yes, I’m in,” Hoot remembers. “Like, let’s get this done…it just all worked perfectly.”
The Voice: Battle of Champions premieres on February 23 on NBC.