24-year-old Charlotte singer opens up about competing on new season of ‘American Idol’
A Charlotte singer is in the spotlight on this season of “American Idol.”
24-year-old Josh King is one of the many artists from across the country who scored a ticket to Hollywood to compete on the hit reality show.
The local performer, who happens to play multiple instruments, spoke with CharlotteFive about how he got on the show, his audition process — with two songs — and what it was like to compete this season.
Here’s what he had to say about his overall experience. (Note: The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.)
C5: When and how did you get your start in music?
King: “I got my start in music when I was around 6 years old, when my dad gave me my first harmonica. I was pretty obsessed with the instrument, but you know, I treated it as a toy until I was around 8 years old, when I saw blues harmonica players do real music with it.”
“I saw James Cotton, snuck backstage to meet him and he took me under his wing and mentored me in performance. He was the one who got me into singing. He told me, ‘If you really wanna make it in this business, you’ve got to do more. You’ve got to be more.’ He’s like, ‘I want you to start singing.’”
C5: What made you want to be on “American Idol?”
King: “A lot of people recommended that I go on ‘American Idol’ … I’ve put it off for years and years and years ’cause I was under the impression if I sent in an audition I would never get in. There’s so many better singers out there than me. I don’t think I’m special, and I just never thought it would happen. I saw the casting calls on Instagram one day and [thought] ‘You know what? I might as well just take one of my YouTube videos and just submit it.’
“Like a day later, I got a call back [saying], ‘Hey, we would like to do an on-call audition with you for our producers.’ Within that week, I was in Nashville.”
C5: How did you prepare for the show? What’s the story behind the song you chose for your audition?
King: “I’m not gonna lie, I was completely unprepared. I didn’t think it would happen so quickly. It was 0 to 100% very quickly. I had submitted a video of me playing that rendition of ‘Over the Rainbow,’ and … the producers were like ‘Hey, we really love this rendition of the song, Would you please do this for the judge audition?’ I was like ‘What about something else? I can do something even better.’ [They] were like ‘No. We really want to see you do this one in front of the judges.’”
C5: Going back to that day, walk me through your audition experience. What was going through your mind when you got to perform that song … and then was asked to perform another song right after?
King: “I wasn’t really freaked out about playing because it’s just another Sunday for me, just playing in front of people. I get really freaked out in front of cameras.”
“It was shortly after [Hurricane] Helene, so getting over to it was quite the challenge because I-40 was still shut down … [I was told]: ‘First day is gonna be rehearsals and filming, Your second day will be more rehearsals, and then your audition for the judges.’ I was like, ‘OK.That sounds great.’ That gives me at least a day to really hone in on what I’m doing and decide what I’m doing. So I get all the filming done, I do a rehearsal once, I’m doing even more b-roll footage. Then one of the producers came up to me and said, ‘Josh, there’s been a change of plans. We have moved your audition to the very last of the day.’
“So I did get a little bit stressed out on that front because I’m going into it, like, I’m catching the judges at the end of the day. They’re gonna be tired. They’re just going to want to go home. They’re gonna want to rest because it’s been a long day for them, too, so I’m afraid that all three of them were just going to say no.”
“That being said, I went in there thinking, ‘There’s no way they just push me through to Hollywood.’ I get in there, I do ‘Over the Rainbow’ and then they’re listening … and, of course, they all agree that I was doing too much on the piano — that it was taking away from the vocal — so they wanted me to do something else and try to minimize the piano as much as possible.”
“In fact, what they did is, ‘Just play the note and then sing ‘My Girl,’’ and then I completely ignored their instructions because I was in the heat of the moment …and they’re like ‘Um …’ and I’m like, ‘Wait, wait, wait. Let me do it. I can do it.’ So I dumbed it down just to the baseline, and I sang ‘My Girl.’ Of course I was also struggling to remember the lyrics. I don’t sing that song often, but overall, I managed to make it through it.”
C5: What did it mean to you once you got the coveted ticket to Hollywood?
King: “Really most of what was going through my head at the time was, ‘They hear something in me. They see something in me and their challenge to me was to squeeze that potential out of me. … My thoughts going out of that audition was I have a lot to work on. I have a very short you know window of time to hone in on it, figure out what they want to hear and, somehow, I’ll pull it out in time for Hollywood and impress them enough that they send me to Showstopper [round] and from Showstopper, send me to do whatever round they’re going to do.”
“This is Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood we’re talking about. Their standards are incredibly high. They are the best in the industry, and so knowing that, you have to really take yourself and constantly push yourself into this uncomfortable zone of self-improvement, you could say, where you’re listening. I record myself. I listen back. I record myself again, and I’ll listen back and it’s constant and constant and I have to try to pick out every single nuance, tone, pitch, everything. It’s that challenge they gave me that stresses me out the most.”
“But I went out there. I’m like ‘You know what? This is a massive hill in front of me, and I have to figure out how to climb it.”
C5: How did it feel watching that episode back, seeing the audition after having gone through it a couple of months ago?
King: “Honestly, I’m my own biggest critic, so I’m watching it like I could’ve done that could’ve done this. I did actually have kind of a plan. I wanted to do some high notes and stuff — and then did none of that. There’s a couple of riffs I wanted to do. There’s sections I didn’t want to riff on, but then I did and like the plan that I had completely fell through because I was just in that heat at the moment.”
C5: Was there anything about the process that surprised you?
King: “I’m surprised I made it through. I was downstairs and I was jamming with a bunch of the other contestants. We were playing music. They were singing. I was playing harmonica or guitar, etc. etc. etc., and I’m hearing all these other people around me. I’m like, ‘These people are wickedly good. Who am I to want to be the next ‘American Idol’ winner? All these other people who deserve it even more than me, who have worked harder than me and they are just better. They’re more talented and they’re just better artists than me I. Why should I be put forward and not them?’”
C5: Is there anything about the season you’re able to tease about your experience?
King: “Let’s just say I’m in for one of the most … interesting and stressful rides of my life. Genuinely, Hollywood was incredibly stressful. Like I’ve never had a more stressful experience in my life. You know, that’s the whole point of Hollywood is that they’re gonna take you and they’re gonna put you through the ringer … It’s gonna test your endurance, your stamina, your ability to work under intense pressure, lack of sleep, everything. They’re gonna touch every fiber of your soul and being, and it really tested me.”
How to watch ‘American Idol’
You can tune in to watch King this season when new episodes of “American Idol” are released every Sunday on ABC at 8 p.m. and the next day on Hulu.
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
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