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Watch Rowdy Shea's Blind Audition on Season 26 of The Voice

Coach Gwen Stefani wanted a country singer on her team for season 26 The voice. What she got was the “classic, perfect cowboy” – although she has the cowboy's wife to thank, as singer Rowdy Shea let his new bride do the honors when it came to choosing the coach he would ride with .

Here's how to watch

Regard The voice Mondays at 8/7c on NBC and the next day on Peacock.

Shea, whose blind audition was featured in Monday night's second episode of the season, is “from the great state of Kentucky but currently lives in the great state of Texas.” He explained that he works on a ranch of about 85,000 acres and takes care of 500 horses. When he was 20, Shea began singing on the ranch.

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“Growing up, I wanted to be a horse trainer,” Shea explained. “But since I was on the ranch, I was alone a lot, so I kind of found music.”

Shea started playing rodeos and eventually jumped at the chance to compete The voice at the Blind Auditions, where he sang Toby Keith's “You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This,” a cut from the country singer's 1999 album How do you like me now?!

Watch Rowdy Shea's performance of Toby Keith's “You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like This” during the Blind Auditions for The voice Season 26

He didn't have to sing long before Stefani pressed the button to turn her chair and said to herself, “That's pretty, I can do it.” Michael Bublé was the only other coach after Stefani to change his chair.

Remarkably, Reba McEntire, the country legend among coaches, didn't turn around in her chair. She briefly bonded with Shea because she has a longhorn steer named Rowdy, and she said she might get a chance to steal Shea later in the competition, “and I'm looking forward to that.”

“I'm so grateful that Reba didn't push,” Stefani explained. “You almost feel so defeated even before you try to start a fight for someone who is rightfully country because she is the queen.”

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“I wanted to get a cowboy and I didn't know when you turned around that it would be a classic, perfect cowboy,” Stefani said of Shea, adding that his voice was warm and gentle and that he had an “enchanting stage presence “.

Bublé asked if Shea was a pure country singer or if he was open to taking things in a pop direction, to which the cowboy stated that he would like to “stay in country,” but acknowledged that “Country music is changing. You have to be able to adapt,” expressing a willingness to bridge different genres.

When it came time to choose between the two coaches, Shea brought his wife Jaci, whom he married just a week before the blind auditions. It was Jaci who decided that her husband would join Team Gwen.

“Rowdy is a real, authentic country singer. He sounds believable when he sings,” Stefani said. “He’s exactly what I was looking for.”

How can you watch? The voice?

Watch new episodes of The voice next Monday and Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. ET on NBC. Each episode also appears on Peacock the next day!