Marietta's Zach Seabaugh gunning for 'The Voice' top 4

By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Monday, December 7, 2015

I happened to be in Los Angeles to visit my sister and tag along with my wife on a work trip. I decided to drop by "The Voice" live performance show. Unfortunately, given my inability to time myself properly, I arrived at Universal Studios late. (Long, boring story) So I couldn't sit in the audience. I had to make due with sitting in the media room with the publicists and other blogger/reporter types watching it on multiple TVs like the rest of America. I was able to talk to Zach after the show. I did a video interview and wrote some notes down. The video interview is included below after his performance video:

Marietta's Zach Seabaugh opted for an inspirational Miley Cyrus song "The Climb" tonight as he vies for a top 4 spot on "The Voice" Tuesday.

The Kennesaw Mountain High School 17 year old dialed it back and "George Strait-ed" it, as his coach Blake Shelton noted. Instead of swiveling his hips, he just stood with his guitar and performed in a sincere, emotional fashion.

At some points, he looked glassy eyed as if he was about to cry. It was a clean vocal.

Blake told him before during rehearsals, "You have to swing for the fences."

Afterwards, fellow coach Gwen Stefani said: "I have a feeling you're going through for sure."

"That was your best performance of the season so far, man," added Blake. "It's so good. Perfect timing, man."

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The top 4 will be named Tuesday night. Three top voters are in automatically. The fourth through sixth place finishers will then perform a save song and there will be an insta-save on Twitter for one of them. Next week, the winner will be named among those four.

"I never imagined I'd make this this far," Seabaugh said in an interview after the show. "So many talented people have gone home and I'm lucky to still be here. It's been awesome."

As a minor, he's had to juggle school, taking on-line classes. He said it's been tough but he still gets to spend quality time with both the other minors and the adults. "I've stuck by Barrett's side," he said, referencing 35-year-old country singer Barrett Baber. "I've learned a lot from him."

He also credits coach Blake with instilling confidence in him. He said while singing "The Climb" tonight, he felt really emotional at one point and looked over at Blake and Blake gave him a boost with just a look. "It was a cool connection," he said. Seabaugh felt the message of "The Climb" (which was his song choice idea) fit his journey on the show.

Win or lose, Seabaugh hopes to leverage his time on "The Voice" into a country music and/or acting career.

He has four sisters: two older ones who are college athletes and two younger ones who he dubs "brainiacs." If he makes it to the finals, he hopes to get everybody out to Los Angeles next week. His mom Beth has been by his side the entire time here and his dad Devan flies in every week. Both parents play musical instruments. Neither sings.

Seabaugh isn't sure who he'll be singing with during next week's finale, win or lose tomorrow. He'd love to team up with Brad Paisley, Josh Turner or Sam Hunt. His dad mentioned Zac Brown, too.

He said he's focusing on country music because it enables him to tell a story. And he got to whip out his guitar tonight. He said he's been playing for 12 years but is a long way to go before he can shred like Paisley.

MJ's Big Blog chief MJ Santelli isn't a fan of Seabaugh and ranked him seventh out of nine in his power rankings before tonight. But he clearly has a following that might get him into the top six, giving him a shot at the top four.

His top three are Jordan Smith, Emily Ann Roberts and Amy Vachal. He would love to see Madi Davis and Jeffery Austin in the top four. In a poll posted on MJ's blog Wednesday, Seabaugh was ranked sixth out of nine after Monday night's performance show.

It doesn't take a genius to see Smith is a favorite to win. He was given the pimp spot, a ball-busting Queen song ("Somebody to Love") and a huge choir behind him to boot. Coach Adam Levine's joy was real. He even "dropped the mic" for Smith. (By 11:40 p.m. EST, the song was No. 1 on iTunes, bumping off Adele for a moment.)

In rank order as of 11:40 p.m., on iTunes, it was Smith followed by Jeffery Austin, Emily Ann Roberts, Braiden Sunshine, Madi Davis, Amy Vachal, Zach Seabaugh and Barrett Baber, all in the top 11. Shelby Miller was the only performer outside the top 11, at No. 26.