Jake Hoot. A name synonymous with NBC’s The Voice, and for the people of Cookeville, a small town boy made good. 

But Jake’s story didn’t start here. As the son of missionaries, he found his identity, and the game that would eventually bring him to Putnam County more than 1,500 miles away from the Dominican Republic.

Jake reflected, “In the Dominican, baseball was huge and while I liked the competitiveness, there wasn’t enough action for me; I was the one chasing butterflies in the outfield. We taught a lot of people in the Dominican Republic how to play football and I knew I wanted to play college football. I moved to the area because my brother was living in Smith County at the time and once I visited Cookeville, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is it.’ My brother was here, and our church was here. But football was the main reason for coming to Cookeville. And then I fell in love with it here.” 

On his career as an offensive lineman at Tennessee Tech University, he elaborated, “Let me just say Coach (Watson) Brown, Coach (Thomas) Cox, and all of my fellow linemen were very patient with me. When I first got here, I met with Dog Daggett, TTU’s equipment manager at the time who has since passed away, and the first time he put a helmet on me, he goes, ‘How does that feel?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. How’s it supposed to feel?’ Jake continued, “They were very patient with me from stepping on guys’ toes, literally, to my first practice I ever was in coach saying, ‘I want you to pull,’ because I was playing guard, and I said, ‘What am I pulling?’ *Pulling is when a blocking player in American football leaves his usual spot to pick up another assignment on the opposite side of the field. And in my first year, as no shock to anybody, I redshirted or saved a year of eligibility by practicing, but not playing in games. Going from never playing organized football, to doing so at a collegiate level, was a big learning experience. But they were very patient with me, and I am still very thankful for that. I learned a lot of patience from Coach Brown, that’s for sure.”

While football was the primary reason he relocated to Tennessee, a passion for music emerged during Jake’s time at TTU. He stated, “I would play music in the dorms and on the quad in between the dorms. And then, I can’t remember who it was that asked me, but they said, ‘Have you ever played open mic night At Backdoor Playhouse?’ And I had an English class with Andrew Smith (English teacher at Tennessee Tech University who ran the open mic nights), and he would always talk about it because at that time it was twice a semester. I finally mustered up the courage one day and went and did it and absolutely loved it. The only shows that I played when I was in college were on campus at Backdoor Playhouse open mics which were just two or three songs.” 

With the embers of performing live music firmly stoked, Jake began carving a space for himself within the area music scene – humble beginnings that would set a clear path.

“After I graduated, Seven Senses contacted me and said, ‘Hey, somebody canceled. Would you want to come play?’ And that was my first ever gig. I didn’t have a pickup in my guitar, and there was only one mic. So it was very tough.” He continued, “I finished my set (there were only two couples that were still there by that point) and they said, ‘Hey, you’re not done yet. If you keep playing, we’ll keep paying.’ And so I asked Jay Albrecht (owner, Seven Senses), and he was like, ‘Yeah, you can play as long as you want.’ So that night, because of how they treated me and how they wanted to keep hearing me play, it gave me this fire. That was when I finally started to truly play. And of course I began performing Spankies and Seven Senses, and Red Silo wasn’t here just yet. But when it opened, I started playing there all the time. It was and still is a great community to play music in.” 

On the challenges associated with being an unestablished artist, playing to crowds unfamiliar with your work, Jake added, “I think any artist learns who they are and what they can handle. When you’re playing a four-hour set to two people and those people are talking the majority of the time, you have to really learn to love what you do more than love the way people respond to it. I never had the confidence to think I could do it full-time, even though people would tell me I could, I kind of felt that they were just being nice.”

With the birth of Jake’s first daughter, Macy, the stakes of pursuing a career in music were elevated. Jake said, “Having a daughter really ramped up the idea of, ‘If I do this and I can’t provide for her, then I’m failing as a dad.’ So I played on the weekends all over the place – Monterey, Smithville, Crossville, etc. – and I did that for a long time. And then I think I had finally gotten to a place in my life where I was content with, ‘Okay, I’m working at the radio station (Cookeville Communications), I’m making good money, and I get to play on the weekend, so I’m still getting to do what I love.’ And I think that was God’s way of going, ‘Alright, you’re happy where I got you, now let me give you something else.’ And that’s when The Voice approached me. I was posting videos called ‘Bath Tunes’ because I would always sing to Macy when she was taking a bath or whatever. And she was two at the time, and they saw one of those videos and reached out, and I was a little older at that point, and thought, ‘What could it hurt?’ So I went and did it.” 

Once part of The Voice, Jake was not immune to the whiplash that comes as part of transitioning from small crowds in your hometown to entertaining millions around the world on live television. In this crucible, he was forced to hone his craft not only as a musician, but an artist. He stated, “From playing Spankies to a Tuesday night crowd, where it was like ‘Dollar Draft Night’ or whatever, (it was always packed), opposed to playing on live TV was a huge shift with tons of added pressure. And I used to be known as the ‘Thank you’ guy. I wouldn’t say anything during my shows. I would just say ‘Thank you’ as soon as I finished playing and move on to the next song. There was some kind of mental, I don’t want to say break, but there was something that switched on during The Voice, where I became more comfortable talking on stage. Then you come off a show like that, and I think the biggest mental hurdle is you don’t want to let anybody down. You wear the weight of all these people who came alongside you while you were on that show. I just want to make everybody proud that came alongside me when I was on the show.” 

In a social media existence, the victories of the creative life are often all that the outside world sees. In reality, being a full-time musician comes with tremendous anxiety and a dizzying amount of ups and downs. 

“I tell people the story of how I opened for Darius Rucker in Knoxville to 10,000 people and walked off the stage to a standing ovation. We felt like rock and roll stars. Then, our next show was a two-day drive to a casino in South Dakota and there were nine people in the seats. Those are the mental hurdles that nobody tells you about. You think of all these things that you could face, but when you go from extreme highs to extreme lows, those are the big mental hurdles that you’ve got to deal with. Aside from trying to make everybody proud, it’s like ‘How do you stay happy with who you are? How do you stay consistent when there’s just such huge pendulum swings?’” Jake continued, “I’ve had way more of those highs and lows than I care to admit, but every one of them I’ve looked at as a learning experience and as something that’s an important part of my journey. I laugh about that casino show now. At the time, playing with nine people was a challenge (with my hat literally rubbing on the drop ceiling in that room in South Dakota). But, looking back, and laughing about it while playing three songs on the Opry stage, I see it as a reminder of how this industry is wild and God has a sense of humor. For anybody in any industry, when you’re able to push through a mental block and push through the uncomfortable and the disappointing, that’s what makes you who you are.”

Jake knows that while he was the one performing on and winning season 17 of The Voice, the encouragement (and votes) of those that believed in him helped in many different ways. 

“I think anybody, in any industry, in any dream that they’re chasing, feeling a little bit of support makes a world of difference. And while I was on The Voice, it felt like I was just surrounded. When people were watching me, they were probably thinking, ‘Oh, he’s just surrounded by all this, all these people, all this whatever.’ But talking and singing into a camera can be very isolating.” Jake added, “And even though I had a great family on The Voice, I had a great support group of other artists that we were in that thing together, being gone from home, being gone from my daughter, being gone from friends and family, was very isolating. And I didn’t realize what was going on in Cookeville until a good way through the process. When I started seeing people’s posts and billboards and hearing radio ads and watching people send videos in or send me messages or text messages, whatever it was, it was a huge lift when I was on the show. That support made me realize, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s all these people who don’t even know me that maybe never heard me play a live show in their life, who are taking time out of their day not only to watch but to vote and spread the word.” 

He finished, “When I came off the show, I think I only had 20,000 to 30,000 on Instagram. Facebook was just over 100,000, which is amazing, don’t get me wrong. It was amazing. But since then, those numbers have gone way up because of those same people sharing and promoting whatever I post, whether it’s a funny video, a music video, whatever it is that I’m posting; I keep getting that support. It just keeps making me go, ‘You know what? This is not just about me and I’m part of something bigger. Even though I’m the one singing the songs, even though I’m the one out on the road, whatever it is, there are people praying for me, sharing my music, telling others, ‘Hey, have you heard of Jake?’ It’s like you’re part of this bigger thing and there’s just something comforting about that that makes you want to dig in that much harder. To have people that still believe and support you no matter where you are, is invaluable. You just can’t put a price tag on it.” 

From lonely hotel nights to the worldwide separation that would follow his victory during Covid, Jake leveraged (and continues to lean on) the above mentioned, persistent encouragement of others and the unconventional outlets of expression made available to him to navigate the choppy waters of a performance-based life. 

“Feeling the isolation of the show was like growing up a missionary kid. You move from place to place to place to place, and you don’t ever fully settle in one place. So, to have a community that I moved to play football and go to college in that I ended up staying part of embracing me and becoming the type of consistent community that I had never really had before was unbelievable. And the times when you’re sitting there in the room, even though you made it to the next round, when you’re sitting there going, ‘Man, I’m not good enough. I’m not, there’s so many people more talented than me, I’m just going to fizzle out.’ When you see that support back home and you feel that support back home, it gives you an extra push.” 

He continued, “And then going through COVID, I mean, we lost a year and a half worth of touring in a matter of weeks coming off the show. We had different interests from different labels and stuff like that that came off the table immediately. And once again, I could have gone into this hermit mode, this, ‘Woe is me. The world is shutting down.’ But opportunities were still there. People who had me booked would reach out and say, ‘Hey, we had this show booked, but we want you to do a Facebook Live thing now.’ Given it’s not the same as being in person, but just feeling that support was awesome. I was posting as much as I could and watching the amount of people that got on there and commented or shared was huge. And while a lot of people went through depression, I didn’t really go through depression because I had so many people pulling for me.”

Even with entire communities cheering him while part of the show, Jake found a higher level of support than he believed possible in wife Brittney following The Voice’s conclusion.

 “When you have the right person lifting you up, championing you, encouraging you, cheering you on in more ways than just with words, it changes everything. When Brittney came into the picture, I lacked a lot of self-confidence. I was very negative about the way I talked about myself. If anybody gave me a compliment, I would instantly deflect and tell them, ‘Oh, you’re just being nice.’ When she came into my life, it wasn’t an immediate change. It was a process, but she shifted the whole way I viewed myself.” Jake added, “She had this ‘Five Things’ rule. Anytime I’d say something negative about myself or anytime I deflected a compliment, I would have to say five nice things about myself and I hated it. And I would come up with just the dumbest things like, ‘Oh, I love the slope of my nose. Oh, I love the arch of my eyebrows,’ all these stupid things. But after time, I would quit saying negative things. When I changed the words that I was speaking over myself, it changed the way I thought. In any industry, a lot of times you have people who build you up for their benefit. But, when you have people who build you up because they truly believe in you and they truly see the greatness in you that you don’t see, that also changes the way you view yourself. I had a lot of people that built me up for their own benefit and their own gain, and to have somebody like Brittney who just truly championed me because she believed in what I was doing and who I was, that changed everything for me. To have somebody that doesn’t sit behind the scenes and goes, ‘All right, go do your thing,’ but who walks along in the hard times with you when it’s hard to pay bills and they’re in the trenches with you going, ‘Hey, it’s okay. We’re going to be all right.’ It’s an amazing thing. And so I’m very thankful and I absolutely know I would not be where I am today in my career or in my personal life if it wasn’t for her.” 

With new music on the horizon, a trio of daughters ruling his days, and 60 pounds lost through exercise and lifestyle changes, it’s easy to see that bright days are here and lie ahead for Jake Hoot. 

As our interview drew to a close, I asked Jake about happiness and how he has found peace both as a man and artist. He concluded, “I think I’m in a place mentally and emotionally where I am just very content while also very hungry for the next thing and hungry for the arena shows and hungry for being on tour with a big name and all the next steps that are possible. We’re just in a really good place where we’re just like, ‘You know what? We’ve been very blessed and we’ve had so many opportunities that a lot of people don’t get to have.’ So we appreciate that while also going, ‘Let’s get this next thing.’ 

New music is coming. You may see me in a play or in a TV show, who knows? We’re just enjoying it and watching our girls grow and watching their musical talents get better. They all have pitch, which is unbelievable. Even our 1-year-old will match my pitch. And it’s beautiful as a dad to get to watch things that you’re passionate about, that you do, that they become passionate about; it’s a beautiful thing. I’m very blessed with where we are now and very excited for what the future holds.” 

If you think Jake Hoot is defined by winning The Voice, I must respectfully disagree. More than any musical ability, Jake will be remembered for kindness. He gives freely of his talent, time, and heart to all that need it. I’ve taken the stage with countless musicians over my career and I can honestly say, none has treated me with more respect or trust than Jake Hoot. If he couldn’t sing a note, Jake’s positive impact on the world would be just as immense and lifegiving. 

Writing this piece was an honor, as is calling you my friend, Jake. Thanks for representing Cookeville well and for letting us celebrate you through this edition of Cookeville Lifestyle Magazine. 

– by Andrew Buckner, photos by Abby Weeden, Brittney hair by Emily Bochette, Brittney makeup by Jamhile Eckert, kids wardrobe by Ready, Set, Grow