Ludington native auditions with ‘The Voice’

Tyler Reed

By Kate Krieger. MCP Correspondent.

LUDINGTON – It’s not everyday when a passion in life could become a reality, but for Ludington resident, Tyler Reed it might just happen. Reed, 22, has been a musician since the around the age of 8 when he started playing the drums. He sang throughout his high school career and about a year and a half ago he decided to pick up a guitar and started writing his own music.

Writing songs and also playing a variety of covers, Reed and his Ludington area band, The Whiskey Rebels have been very successful in the local bar scene, giving Reed more confidence in his performing.

Working for Western Land Services as a land man, Reed would be on the road a lot, away from his home in Ludington. About four months ago, Reed decided to look online at the possible audition dates for NBC’s The Voice.

“A lot of people would ask me if I ever thought about trying out for The Voice,” he said. “I never really gave it that much thought.”

One night while in his hotel room, Reed was online and saw that auditions for the TV show could be submitted online, so on a whim, he sent in two videos of himself playing some of his original songs.

Time went by and he kind of forgot that he even sent the videos in.

“I really totally forgot about it,” he said. “About a week and a half ago, I got a beep on my phone and it was an email from The Voice saying I got a call back.”

Reed said that he called his father, John and told him about the news.

“I called my dad and told him and he was like, ‘You’re going, right?’”

Reed will be heading off to a 7 a.m. call back audition at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio on June 14 and if he makes it through that round, he will be called back at the end of July to fly out to Los Angeles for the show’s first rounds of filming in front of the live judges.

“The part that is exciting is that it’s not that far away if I actually get on the show,” he said. “The possibility of getting to that next level is pretty close.”

As excited as Reed is, he said that he thinks his family and church family are more excited than he is. His band The Whiskey Rebels just recently booked a show at The Intersection in Grand Rapids on July 26 and Reed said that he would be willing to make the flight to Los Angeles, back to Grand Rapids and then back to Los Angeles if he makes it to the next round of auditions, but he doesn’t want to pass up the opportunity to play The Intersection either.

Reed said all the details are still very unknown as far as what he should expect once he gets to Cleveland, but he is probably going to perform one of his original songs.

“I might sing my original song, ‘My Home,’” he said. “It’s written about being on the road and coming back home to Ludington.”

With his raspy, country-inspired voice, Reed plans on making an impression on the judges in Cleveland and he hopes performing an original song might be what takes him to that next level.

“In doing an original, I can truly say, ‘This is my style,’” he said. “We will see where it all goes.”