Jake Hoot had no idea when he auditioned for Season 17 of The Voice that he would be crowned the winner in 2019. Hoot, who was on Kelly Clarkson‘s team, quickly saw his popularity soar after his monumental win.

“Before The Voice, I was singing every weekend at different bars and wineries and stuff like that. And so I had quite a good little circuit in Middle Tennessee. I probably had tens of followers on Instagram and Facebook,” Hoot jokes with  Everything Nash. “They gave me a jumpstart and gave me a platform that I didn’t have.”

Still, winning a reality TV talent show on a major network doesn’t automatically guarantee overnight success. For Hoot, the work became even more intense after The Voice, until the world shut down because of the pandemic.

“Not to say that everything has been simple,” Hoot says. “I mean, it’s been a grind. And it’s almost like you start at ground zero as soon as you come home. Especially since I won right before COVID hit. But it’s been great. And it opened a ton of doors. It got me my Grand Ole Opry debut.  I’ve played it 33 times since then. And it got me in the room with a bunch of, in my opinion, the world’s best writers. It opened so many doors.”

“I’ve never really looked back,” the father of three continues. “If I’ve asked myself anything, it’s ‘What if I would have won when it wasn’t right before COVID?’ But even then, everybody came to a screeching halt. And all of us had to figure a way to reinvent the wheel. But it’s been good. I tell people I used to build houses for a living, years and years ago, and now I get to sing songs and put food on the table for my babies. So I’ve got it good.”

Jake Hoot Talks About His “The Blade” Duet With Jamie Floyd

Earlier this year, Hoot and singer-songwriter Jamie Floyd released a duet together, “The Blade.” No stranger to duets, in 2021, Hoot and Clarkson released “I Would’ve Loved You,” a song Hoot and Floyd wrote with Dean Sams.

“The Blade” written by Floyd, along with Marc Beeson and Allen Shamblin, is the title track of a record Ashley Monroe put out in 2015. Hoot has been a fan of the song since then.

“I remember when the Ashley Monroe album came out, I was working in radio at the time, and I always loved the song,” Hoot shares. “Jamie and I wrote the Kelly Clarkson duet with Dean Sams, and I had no idea she was a co-writer on ‘The Blade.’  We were doing a writer’s round a year or two later, and she plays it. And I was like, ‘Jamie, I love that song.’ And so whenever we would do shows together, I started asking her, ‘Hey, can I come out and just sing harmony with you on ‘The Blade?’ ‘Cause I know every word. And then we turned it into a true duet for one of our last shows that we did together.

“It went over so well that we just decided, let’s turn this into a duet,” he adds. “Her husband Jimmy [Thow] produced it. I mean, it’s one of my favorite ones I put out.”

Jake Hoot’s Children’s Book, ‘The Great Big Blowout‘

In addition to working on his music, Hoot can now add becoming an author to his resume. Earlier this year, Hoot released The Great Big Blowout, a humorous children’s book inspired by his own little girls.

“I tell people I just like to tell stories, and I’ve got a lot of crazy things up in here,” Hoot says, pointing to his head. “And so, a couple of years ago, I just started writing everything down. The hardest thing was just finding an illustrator”

Once Hoot found someone to illustrate The Great Big Blowout, everything else fell into place.

‘It’s like anything you do,” Hoot reflects. “Once you do it the first time, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is easier than what I thought it was.’ … And so now we’re looking at doing more, and we’re just gonna see where it goes. My girls love it. It’s based on a true story. My three-year-old, her name is Maddie, she calls it her poop book. She’ll introduce it, ‘That’s my poop book.'”

Find The Great Big Blowout and all of Hoot’s music and upcoming shows at JakeHoot.com.

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