Off set, but still singing

Jeremy Briggs chugged a whole lot of kale juice before leaving for Los Angeles. He was about to compete on NBC’s hit competition show The Voice, and sing for star judges Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Shakira and Usher. And 15.7 million viewers.

Beyond the cleanse, the Sacramento rocker didn’t prepare too much for The Voice. It all just sort of happened. A recruiter contacted Briggs’ manager about a different singer, and Briggs ended up thrown into the mix. Suddenly, he was at a private audition in San Francisco. He passed through. And he kept passing through. Until he was on television.

In the season premiere, he impressed the judges with his rendition of “Bad Company” from the band by the same name. Shakira picked Briggs for her team, but then eliminated the singer during the next round. It may have looked like a brief stint to viewers, but Briggs insists he was involved for a long, long time.

“It’s really tough,” he says. “You’ve devoted so much to this show and the process, and literally, it’s done. The next day, you’re on a plane.”

Sounds harsh, but Briggs still says the whole experience was amazing. He had his doubts, sure. For years, friends hassled him to audition for American Idol and other singing shows. He didn’t want to sell out. He wanted to build a fan base in a grassroots way.

Now he says the grueling competition show is most definitely not an easy way to fame. And for a lot of contestants, it offers a second chance after years of unsuccessful efforts. But before he knew any of that, Briggs still thought the popular show was different because it was built on mentorship.

“The Voice was the first time I watched a show where you could really see the artist development from start to finish,” he says. “I wanted to surround myself with other singers who are incredible and work with people who could make me better.”

Briggs has no regrets. He learned loads—The Voice gave Briggs his first formal vocal training, and even social-media lessons. Since the show’s debut in February, he’s amassed 3,000 followers on Twitter, and he posts YouTube videos nearly every week to keep them engaged. Now, he’s focused on his future, hopefully as a full-time musician.

“A television show doesn’t make your career,” he says. “You gotta come out of it swinging hard.”

Saturday marks his first hometown show since The Voice, and he’s a little nervous. In a way, it’s his coming-out party. He used to perform as the frontman for local rock band Relic 45, but now he’s performing under his own name. At Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub, he’ll open his show with an acoustic set before bringing out the full band.

Perhaps more than anything else, he’ll show off new confidence. Briggs used to view himself as a guitarist first, and a singer second—he picked up his first guitar when he was 12, and in his high-school band he wrote song lyrics for someone else to sing. He attributes his former aversion to playing under his name to his team-oriented background in baseball, playing and coaching at Sacramento City College.

“Now, moving forward, it’s all on me,” he says.

Still, he’s writing and performing the same music that he loves: danceable rock ’n’ roll with a Southern edge. It’s a sound that would probably do well in, say, the South. The Elk Grove native is eyeing a move to Texas or Tennessee someday soon—it’s the wiser business choice, he says.

But Briggs will miss Sacramento’s fresh produce. Juice cleanses probably aren’t a big thing in Texas.