Josh Kaufman won season 6 of The Voice back in spring 2014, went on tour with some of his fellow The Voice singers during the summer, starred in the Broadway revival of Pippin the following fall, and then virtually disappeared from public life, save for the local appearance here and there.
Part of the prize package for The Voice winners is a Universal Republic recording contract. But Josh didn’t release a full album–or even a single–through the label after his win.
Now, the Indianapolis native is back with a new single, “Truth Be Told,” the title track off of a six song EP set to be released July 17.
In an interview with Yahoo Music’s Reality Rocks blog, which premiered the song’s music video. Josh explains why it took him so damn long to release music and what happened between him and the record label:
I was contractually obligated to be a part of The Voice tour right after I was on the show, which meant I couldn’t work on my own music right away. Soon after that I began working on Pippin, which took me to the end of 2014, and again I didn’t have much spare time to work on my own stuff. Beyond that, there is, of course, a record deal with Republic Records that comes along with winning The Voice. Republic is one of the biggest, most successful labels in the world, which sounds great. Unfortunately, at least in my case – and I think this has been an issue for other winners of The Voice – because Republic has so many huge artists, I was pretty low on their priority list. Big labels aren’t in the business of taking risks anymore, and Republic has enough ‘sure things’ on their roster that they weren’t going to put time and money into me.
“It was hard to get things moving,” Kaufman continues, “and when we finally did get to cutting a single at the end of 2014, it wasn’t something I was proud of. I had no hand in writing or producing the song, and it just wasn’t me. That song was never released. Ultimately, the record deal was more of a hindrance than a help, and in the first part of 2015 my manager contacted Republic and asked them to let me out of the deal, which they did. I spent 2015 creating lots of new music – songs that I’m really excited about. And believe me, I really wanted to get something out there before this. The problem is, we were trying to time a release to coincide with an appearance back on The Voice. Unfortunately and frustratingly, that just hasn’t worked out.”
No appearance for YOU Josh, because it’s way more important to pimp the coaches and cross promote Universal/NBC properties! Who cares if you ACTUALLY WON THE SHOW. For the record Josh has YET to return to The Voice after his win.
And it’s a shame, because Josh is an extremely talented vocalist. Just listen to the full version of the single, and you’ll see. Some of the finest blue eyed soul you will hear anywhere. And this song fits right next to singers like Sam Smith on pop radio.
