Life-changing moment from ‘The Voice’ weekend

by Peter Jakey-Managing Editor

Taed Price of Onaway received some life-changing news when he traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to participate in an audition for the popular NBC television show “The Voice.”

TAED PRICE, who holds his audition pass, took part June 14, 2014. He did not get a call back card, but he would like to try again this fall. (Courtesy photo)

 

The reality television series was wrapping up its open call auditions in June 2014. Price tried to sing his way onto the show.

Price, a 2004 Onaway High School graduate who works for Presque Isle Electric and Gas Cooperative, loves singing and playing the piano. He has displayed those talents in public for years.

For years, family members encouraged him to try out for The Voice or American Idol. He likes the concept of The Voice because the judges are coaches. So, he made the 400-mile trek with his wife Jayce to participate in an audition with 20,000 other participants. He had to prepare two acapella songs from current popular music and have a third song ready to sing.

“I got in a line outside, there were a lot of lines, and eventually they let us in,” said Price. “We went through a security check point into the registration line and then into a waiting area. From the waiting area they took us down in groups of 50 down to the auditions and divided them into smaller groups of 10.”

All 10 people went before a producer at once.

“You only had time to sing 30 seconds of a verse and a chorus of a song,” said Price. He sang “Breakeven” by the Script. “You sing to the producer and the other nine people. It was five hours from start to finish that I was in that auditorium.

“In my case, the producer thanked us all for coming. She said she did not have call back cards to give, but she asked us to come back next year. That was encouraging. It was a lot of fun just going down.”

But, it was not even the best part.

The next day was Father’s Day and the couple was getting to leave and Jayce informed

him that they were going to have their first baby. “The morning after the audition she took a test and found out,” said Price.

The next auditions for The Voice are about the time the baby is expected in late February, so life’s circumstances will put his entertainment career on hold for the time being. “I will be auditioning again this fall – I am already working on songs for the next auditions. I have to narrow my list of 50 to 10,” he said with a hearty laugh.

For now, he’s left with great memories of Cleveland and not from what a TV producer said, but from what his wife had to say.