KANNAPOLIS — Gratitude has been a big part of Josh Sanders’ journey to The Voice, and it’s a message that he would share with those who follow him along the way.

Sanders, a Kannapolis native, auditioned on NBC’s The Voice at the end of February, performing Nate Smith’s song, “Whiskey on You,” for the coaches, receiving one, then two, chairs turning, and now he’s off to the Battles portion of the competition.

The journey began, Sanders said, when he happened to watch the final episode of Season 22 in December a little over a year ago. He caught the performance of Bodie singing the song “Gratitude” by Brandon Lake, and said this caught him off guard.

The young man was singing this song on live television, “and it’s not just a song about God but it’s a worship song. It’s a song to God, and I just remember seeing that and telling my wife, that’s just not the same Hollywood” he remembered from years ago when he had been there previously.

It wasn’t long after watching this performance that Sanders saw an advertisement on Facebook to submit a video to try out for The Voice.

He had a conversation with his wife, Kendra, and told her what he was feeling about auditioning. “Am I too old, is this silly?” he asked her, and her reply stuck with him and it’s an answer he said he has carried with him through this whole process.

She said, “honey, if you submit the video, things could happen and change our lives forever. But if you do and things don’t happen, we still have a beautiful life. So you’re not losing anything if you feel led to try.”

And that is the attitude he has had as he moved forward and as he stepped out on the stage to perform.

“I’ve really approached this thing with, God it’s your will not mine, things are good at home, we have a wonderful life, a beautiful family, and so I’m going to give it a try and if it happens, it happens and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. There’s been a sweet kind of spirit, kind of a peace about it this whole time.”

And while he is at peace and concentrating on, as he said, doing the best that he can and being the best him that he can be and letting the cards fall where they may, there are aspects of the competition that have brought on feelings of anxiety and excitement.

Stepping out on that stage, he said, was “insane because right before you start, you can hear a pin drop in the room, because it’s television. You’re getting set and the cameras are about to start rolling and it’s just dark and dead quiet.”

The count starts, and here it comes, Sanders said, and just as he starts to sing, he realizes he’s having trouble hearing, perhaps the monitors, maybe another reason, but he wasn’t sure why.

“When you put a live audience in the room, it just changes how things sound,” he noted. 

In those moments, he said he was struggling some, and then it came to him, “Josh, just rely on the power in your voice, that gusto kind of push through,” and when he did, he could hear again and he was like “here we go.”

He’s singing and into the song, the crowd is into the song and he belts out a high note, one he thought would get the coaches to turn around, but still no chairs had turned.

His initial thought when he opened his eyes and looked was, ‘if ya’ll didn’t like that, there’s not a whole lot more that I have to offer you,’ and then he concentrated on just finishing well. 

That’s all he said he kept telling himself, “just finish well,” and just as he is on what he called the last climb vocally, he looks and sees Reba’s chair turn.

“I remember it literally took my breath away,” he said.

It was when he noticed her chair turned, he bends over and steps back like he was finished and then it hits him that he has one more line. So he rushes back to the microphone and completes the song and as he is finishing the last line, the very last moment, Sanders said, that Dan and Shay hit their button.

And in that moment is when those feelings of anxiety and excitement hit, along with a feeling of completion, he said, followed by reality that sets in.

Only needing one, he got two, chairs turned. Both are country artists that he respects, Reba, the queen of country, and Dan and Shay whose music he said he loves and respects for what it stands for.

He admits that the panel of judges this year is stacked, with lots of talent and if either of the other coaches had turned, John or Chance, he loves their music too.

“Growing up, I’ve always tried to lend my ear to many genres,” he said.

A decision has to be made, and there’s not much time to make that decision, as he said, “they only give you what you see on television, it’s pretty accurate, you get a matter of a minute, maybe less.”

When he submitted his video, Sanders said, it wasn’t long afterward that Blake resigned from the show and he was disappointed because that is who he would have gone with, given the chance as he said they were kindred spirits, both enjoying hunting and singing country.

But looking back he said that “when Reba took that seat over, it was just a divine thing because she and I also carry a lot of mutual feelings, especially regarding our faith, our morals, styles of music.” 

Knowing that his wife is a huge Reba fan and they both grew up listening to those ’90s country classics, he had a strong sense that he would choose her, but, he said, when he found out about Dan and Shay, that changed things, “because now I’m like, she’s everything I’ve known but they’re doing everything I want to do. It’s like the past versus the now. So that was hard, but at the same time, there’s a peace that came about.”

When he’s in the process of deciding, Sanders said, Reba is holding this little red box. He didn’t know what it was, but when he names her as his choice, and he approaches her, she tells him that she has this box of Reba’s chicken tenders for him.

“You are speaking to my heart,” he tells her. Now they just needed some barbecue sauce and sweet tea, he told her.

Sanders said he has met some with Reba, but when he returns to Hollywood for the Battle round, that is when the work will begin as she provides instruction for him during rehearsals.

He is home now awaiting that call to return, and when it comes, he said it’s his wife’s hope to go back with him. She and their oldest daughter, McKenlyn, were able to be with him on the show for the blind audition, which the show helped make happen; however, he said it’s up to family and friends to get there going forward. His children are excited for him to be on the show, and it’s his wife’s wish to be there with him. 

“No matter how far this goes, her wish is to be there for it, every step of it,” he said.

Getting to this point has been a lifetime of preparation, Sanders said, as he is definitely no stranger to music. He got his start in music in church watching his father, Darren Sanders, who was a pastor in Kannapolis and passed away in 2013. He played the piano and before that, served as a worship pastor at several area churches, directing choirs and bands, and he soaked it up.

Sanders said he was about eight when he started playing the drums and would play when he got the chance in church, when his uncle happened to not be there. He went on to play drums in school in the symphonic, jazz and marching bands. He picked up the bass and his grandmother taught him to play his first middle C on the piano, he said, “anything musical that I could get my hands on.”

Around 12 or 13, he began playing the acoustic guitar and teaching himself to learn songs and sing while playing at the same time.

As for singing, he started when he was 10 while participating in a Christmas play, rapping his part. It dawned on him that maybe he could sing.

His mother, Renee Fields Sanders Harrington, is likewise musical, as her family had the Fields Family Gospel Group. She began singing at an early age, he said, and years later when the group was singing at a Kannapolis church, his parents first met and later married.

Josh said that his father played by ear and he is much like his father in that he learned pretty much this way.

During high school, Sanders said his interest turned from playing in the band to playing sports including football and baseball. However, his junior year, he suffered a severe injury, a torn ACL, sidelining him from his football season.

“That crushed my heart, but at the same time I look back in hindsight and realize it was at that moment I went back to music and when I realized that maybe sports wasn’t for me long term. When that happened, I started playing more music, the guitar, and then that’s kind of how that transitioned. From there on out, it was just music all the way” and while he credits others for helping with music theory and other help, he credits the Lord for what he has acquired musically.

Just like his father, Sanders became a pastor and is serving as pastor for a church they planted, Living Grace Church, located at 517 Pleasant Ave., Kannapolis. Not actually intending to start a church, it began in 2018 as several families gathered for worship music and food and having such a good time, which continued every week. 

The meeting place began in a vineyard that a friend of Sanders owned, and when the weather grew hot, they found an inside location, which they quickly outgrew.

“God was right on time,” he said, as they learned about the property where they are now, which was having to be sold or given away, and “by process of elimination and God’s will, we ended up at the church.”

He and his wife continue to volunteer there and his family is there including his mom and grandmother. “It’s really been a sweet time in our lives.”

Sanders and his wife have four daughters, McKenlyn, 13, Daryn, eight, Kortlyn, five, Joselyn, almost three, and a son, Leelynd Thomas who died at 23-½ weeks, in 2020.

“He was with us about two or three hours,” he said, as he told of this very difficult time when complications happened and “we were just trying to get through,” and it was when COVID hit and the scare at hospital and he came early.

“That was a very tough time, probably the worst time of my life,” he said, but “really I don’t refer to it as a tragedy because even his life, as short as it was, is still making an impact today, not just on others, but on us as well.”

Sanders shared that he has gone through highs and lows in his life, among them the loss of his son and father, but one message he would pass along is the same as what started this journey, “it’s not what you don’t have, it’s what you do have. That’s what keeps you grounded, and if we would just continue to live life grateful and thankful, you don’t have to look far to see the blessings of God in your life, you just have to open your eyes and open your heart.” He said that he finds his mind racing and will try to take a breath and “just thank the Lord for what I do have and think about the blessings in my life and the places that I’ve come from and I think it really helps put a life in perspective.”