WOODVILLE, Texas — A singer from Woodville earned a "four-chair turn" from judges on season 22 of NBC's The Voice.
Kim Cruse hadn't gotten through the first 15 seconds of her blind audition singing Daniel Caesar's "Best Part" on The Voice before John Legend slammed his button.
Legend's chair-turn was followed by Camila Cabello, who turned 41 seconds in and danced and swayed in her seat.
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton then turned at 01:03 and 01:20 respectively.
Cruse, 30, was raised in and still lives in Woodville, picked John Legend as her coach, although he originally wasn't her first choice.
Blake Shelton was her top choice, but he didn't know her favorite artist or the song that she sang at her audition, so she went with a different coach.
For Cruse, the road to The Voice studios in Hollywood, started in Southeast Texas.
She's as true a Texan as they come.
"We love to be outdoors fishing, hunting, all of that good stuff and of course, I grew up in a musical family so we did that as well," Cruse told 12News.
This year, Cruse sang in the Miss Tyler County Pageant that was held in Woodville. She won for her talent, singing of course.
From a local pageant, to center stage in Hollywood, it's still all so surreal for Cruse.
"It's like each chair that turned like the adrenaline was just like there and I was just like, 'keep it cool Kim, keep it cool Kim, get through the song'. But when Blake turned I just couldn't, I couldn't hold it anymore," she said.
Al green is one of Cruse's favorite musicians, and it was important to her that she and her coach were on the same page.
"I chose John, because John was the only coach who knew who Al Green was. This is gonna be the coach who understands me musically, because they know who some of my favorites are," she said.
So of course, Cruse joined Team Legend. While the public doesn't know yet how far she made it on the show, she has a lot of fans cheering for her from Woodville.
"I think I've signed probably like five or six newspapers in Walmart. My mom calls me she's like, 'hey, can you come up to the job?' There's someone here that watched it and they want to they want to meet you," Cruse said.
This time was actually Cruse's fourth time auditioning for The Voice and she also auditioned for other television singing contests.
This isn't so much a story of overnight fame, as it is a story of perseverance.