Jason Isbell Solicited to Audition for 'The Voice' Despite Record Deal

If The Voice is trying to find fresh talent to audition for the show, they should probably do better research.

Jason Isbell, the Americana Music Association's current Artist of the Year, revealed he was solicited by an NBC producer to consider auditioning for The Voice Season 8. "I came across Jason Isbell online and was hoping to chat with him about auditioning for us if it's something that interests him?" read the email from a producer on the show.

Isbell's response? He tweeted the email to his 70,100 Twitter followers, and then followed it up by "accepting" the offer: "My audition on 'The Voice' will be a solo vocal and French horn rendition of 'Oh Comely' by Neutral Milk Hotel. I will wear a #bikini."

Granted, The Voice has never really been a show that has pretended to give only amateur and undiscovered talents a shot, but this seems like a much larger departure from the show's modus operandi.

Isbell was first signed 15 years ago, and has gone on to play 120 shows this year alone, in support of his latest Top 40 release. Further details via Rolling Stone:

To date, [Isbell's latest album] has sold more than 132,000 copies. That puts him within arm's reach of Cassadee Pope, arguably The Voice's most popular alum, whose Frame by Frame has sold 180,000 copies in roughly the same amount of time. Pope is presumably bound by the restrictions of The Voice's infamous contract, though — a contract that was decried as "dehumanizing" and "one-sided" after it leaked earlier this year on Twitter — while Isbell maintains a high level of independence, writes his own material and releases albums on Southeastern Records, a label run by his manager.

So...yeah, while it may be one thing to solicit former stars to be on the show, it's another matter entirely to get someone who's currently very successful in the industry to step down to being a reality show contestant. Not that there's anything wrong at all with being on The Voice, but it's unlikely the show can actually do much for him at this point that he hasn't already accomplished on his own.

Credit: Michael Wilson