07/13/2026
Jake Tankersley it’s only the beginning 🤠 ✨
Follow my friends journey- BIG things lay ahead for Jake!!
Ten years ago, Harry Connick Jr. told me that I was good, but good doesn’t cut it to go to Hollywood on American Idol. Keith Urban saw the drive and passion in me and, as a final vote, pushed me through with a Golden Ticket. I made it through one round out there and flew back to Oklahoma defeated. I thought I was ready, but I just wasn’t.
That’s life sometimes; you think you are ready, but you are definitely not ready. I picked myself up and decided to make a record and keep chasing the dream I had since I was probably 5 or 6 years old. I gained some following from that show and was able to crowd-source the funds to make a full album of music about a year or so after the show. I sure believed in it then. My 23-year-old self thought maybe this will take off, but still, there was this underlying doubt.
“Good, but not good enough.”
As time went on, that continued to echo in my mind. That sentence made me keep pushing though.
I remember when my wife, Ashleigh, had our 4th child and youngest son, James. The day after he was born, I went to the studio to finish the last takes of the vocals for that album and then released it. It did alright, but at the end of the day, I was still an independent artist, and the advertisement funding was new to me in a world of social media and streaming.
As a father of four by 24 years old, I definitely had my work cut out for me, and so did my wife. We pushed hard with full-time jobs and part-time jobs plus music. We had a lot on our plate, but we never gave up. Ashleigh never gave up on me either, even when I wanted to give up on myself sometimes. I kept playing music and releasing singles over the next decade all over Oklahoma. Toward the end of 2023, I really thought maybe this is just it for my passion as an artist/singer-songwriter.
Then I got a message. We saw your video you posted and would love you to send us more. I was reluctant. “You’re good, but not good enough.” Those TV shows aren’t for me. I thought. I’ve been down that road and that’s that. Then my wife said, “ Jake, they sent the message, not you.” So the next day I wrote them back.
I didn’t realize at the time, but I had been refining my craft for nearly a decade between then, pushing to be better in every aspect. My performance, my engagement, my voice, my guitar playing, my songwriting, all of it. I was lightyears better. I just didn’t see it.
I received notification that I made it through to come out for a blind audition. During that time was one of the most mentally challenging things I’ve ever endured in my life. I had been married since I was 18 years old to my incredible wife who I love more than anything. We had 4 children together who I’ve been with since the day they were born. I went from being with them and my wife every night to beating the streets of Burbank to death and living in a hotel for a month and a half preparing for this 90-second moment of singing a song over and over until I was about half crazy in a hotel room.
The best part of this story is this right here. As I walked those streets of Burbank, nearly every city bus that drove by me was a billboard advertisement for a concert at the Hollywood Bowl on July 4th, which was about 5 weeks away from when I showed up. Guess whose concert it was? Guess whose face was plastered on the side of that bus smiling at me as it wizzed by?
Harry Connick Jr.
“You’re good, but not good enough.”
That guy. I got to see him every day. What a great reminder that was for me. It was honestly eerie. It loomed over me like a cloud. I pushed through and decided to give my absolute all to the experience, but I will say there was a time I was ready to give it all up and just go home about a week before my audition. I was done.
One again, my wife pushed me through. The blind audition date was scheduled. I opened the message. It read July 5th. Look up at that last paragraph; does that date sound familiar? I thought to myself, “You’ve got to be joking?” The night before my audition, he’s playing right down the road? What are the chances of that? This guy who has haunted my mind and insecurities for the last decade is here to clown me once again right before this? Wow.
Then I thought, he was right. I was good, but I wasn’t good enough, but that was then, and this is now! Honestly, if he had never said that, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It made me fight, train, and analyze the smallest of imperfections in my craft. I got obsessive about it. I drove my family crazy with it. I just kept on and on and on, and now I’m here.
There’s the microphone.
There’s Snoop, Chair Turn.
There’s Gwen, Chair Turn.
There’s Reba, Chair Turn.
There’s Bublé, Chair Turn.
There’s my wife crying. What just happened?
All 4 chairs? What’s that red line? A block?
What just happened? I’m shaking. I’m in utter disbelief that just happened, and then it hit me.
I’m good enough.
Then my blind audition video received the most views of all time that The Voice has ever posted on Facebook At nearly 37 million views.
God was right by my side those last ten years.
He saw every doubt, fear, and enemy of mine through all of it but he had a plan. Telling this wild story should do nothing but glorify him and the crazy ways he can work in our lives. The entire time I was in LA I had one verse. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm 23:5-6 I repeated it to myself while I was in the holding room right before I went on stage. He was with me.
That was 738 days ago. I am signed to no label. I’ve independently released 3 singles so far this year, and my 4th single releases this Friday.
I’ve independently paid for this album I’m making, and it will fully release next spring. I am honored to get to make this record at the studio of one of my best friends that I made on the show even before he and I were paired as battle partners by our coach.
I hope you continue to follow me on this journey.
I need all my friends on here to go follow this new music page as I continue this race. The way I see it, The Voice was only the beginning.
