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Friday, March 29, 2024

Billy Gilman to perform next month at The Sharon

It’s been a long road to professional and personal self-discovery for Billy Gilman. And down deep, the singer stills feels a bond with Billy the Kid.
“When I look (at myself as) that kid, I want to give him a hug,” Gilman said in a telephone interview.

Billy Giilman made a comeback last year on The Voice.
Billy Gilman made a comeback last year on The Voice.

Billy Gilman – who plays The Sharon on April 7 at 7:30 p.m. — turns 29 this year. Turn back the music time machine two decades and you will see an 11-year old country star named Billy Gilman.

Billy the Kid sold millions of records with his single and hit album “One Voice,” released in 2000. Here is a video:


More hits followed and Gilman seemed destined for an easy lifetime of music stardom. Then something happened – puberty.
Gilman’s voice changed.
The hits ceased.
And Nashville stopped calling as Billy Gilman vanished like a childhood memory.
“I had to reinvent myself with a new voice,” Gilman said. “It took years of work.”
And the work paid off in 2016, when Gilman turned up on the NBC television show, “The Voice.”
“They had been asking me for a couple of years to come on, they liked my story — but I didn’t want to do it,” Gilman said. “I wasn’t just a country singer anymore; I could sing ballads and pop.”
Was the world ready to accept Billy Gilman all grown up? Did he have something to prove to a fickle TV show audience?
“If I was 19, maybe,” Gilman said. “But I was 27 when I went on ‘The Voice.’ If people expected to see the 11-year old kid singing country songs, they were going to be surprised.”
Gilman showed his contemporary maturity singing a powerful and soulful cover of Adele’s “When We Were Young.” Gone was Billy the Kid. In his place was a man with a new voice.  Here is the video:

https://youtu.be/ecWk0g1v-Aw

Life changed for Gilman. He didn’t win “The Voice” in 2016. He came in second. But that doesn’t matter. It was the beginning of Gilman’s second chance and comeback.

“I wasn’t disappointed by not winning,” Gilman said. “I wanted to be independent. It was exhausting being on the show.  I want to be on my own and sing what I want to sing.”
During concerts you might hear Gilman sing Adele or Bruno Mars. While on ‘The Voice’ he covered Queen’s “The Show Must Go On.”

That impressed country star Blake Shelton.
“As great of a singer as you were then when you were 10 years old, you were a million times better as an adult. It’s unbelievable,” Shelton told Gilman.

Billy Gilman was just a kid two decades ago when he became a country music star.
Billy Gilman was just a kid two decades ago when he became a country music star.

Gilman said the two singers he admires most are Garth Brooks, “just for sheer entertainment” and Barbra Streisand, “for her voice.”
It may sound like a unique combination, but Gilman sticks to his beliefs. It was that way a few years ago when he publicly announced he was gay. Gilman did so after country artist Ty Herndon had announced he was gay.
Just as he wanted people to accept him as an adult, Gilman wanted them to accept him as a person.
“I will always strive to be the best artist that I can be,” Gilman stated at the time. “Now that I have finally found my place as a person, that only makes the music that much better.”
Gilman’s views haven’t changed since then.
“I don’t live in fear anymore and I feel a lot more comfortable with myself,” he told me. “For the first time in my whole career, I am completely just me.”
And how does he feel looking at those old videos of Billy the Kid?
“I’m grateful,” he said. “I’ve always had a level of assurance whenever I sing. The only time I feel totally comfortable is on stage. Everything I do on stage comes from the gut.
“It was that way then and that way now. It was weird having instant success. I learned the ropes the hard way. But I’m proud of that kid. And I’d still like to give him a hug.”

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