Twenty years ago, Cozy Len was camped out in a folding chair outside of a stadium in Atlanta. He, along with about five thousand other hopefuls, was there to audition for American Idol. "They came out and said that they were only taking the first 1500 in for an audition," he smiles, "I was number 1444."  Although he wouldn't become the next American Idol, he did go on to have a successful musical career with his band, The Rewind Band.  

Along the way, the Baton Rouge native met his wife, Jasmine, who had settled in Zachary for the school district several years earlier. Jasmine even briefly worked in ZCSD, although she now teaches virtually with University View. 

"My parents both grew up in rural communities, so I liked the quiet country feel. The people, the community. I knew it was where I wanted to be. It feels like home," Cozy says. In addition to fronting his band, Cozy is also a worship leader at The Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge. He describes his style as eclectic, with influences ranging from gospel to jazz and R&B and Contemporary Christian.

However, a few nights ago he wowed the country by performing Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You" during The Voice Blind Auditions. He earned chair turns from Gwen and Reba (and praise from the other judges) but after a pretty tense back and forth between the two female judges, decided to go with Gwen. 

Getting to that point, though, has been a marathon. "The entire process from the first zoom audition to the Blind Auditions took about a year," he explains. Some of that time was spent in LA away from his family, which meant that Jasmine was back here in Zachary trying to keep busy.

"It was good that it happened in the summer because I was off school," she starts.

"You could just go to the gym every day!" Cozy breaks in.

Jasmine laughs. Cozy is typically her very own personal trainer, but with him gone she had to just do her best. She also spent time focusing on her art and design.  Meanwhile, Cozy had a pretty tight schedule with The Voice, but "it's the type of thing where when you're on, you're on, but there's downtime too." He watched a lot of movies.

Chasing your musical dreams as a 40-something with a wife and kids isn't quite the same as being a 20-year-old kid in a folding chair, but it also has its advantages. "I've worked as a professional musician for a long time. I know the business. The Voice is great because it's a well-oiled machine and you can just focus on singing. That's what they want from all of us - to just do our best and focus on our voice."
 
Because of how the shows are released, Cozy doesn't know yet when his next segment, the head-to-head knock out, will air, but it will be in the next several weeks. We'll get a heads-up the week before, so watch this space for news about a watch party! Meanwhile, if you want to see Cozy live, he'll be performing with his band at Sullivan's Steakhouse on November 15th. 

"I'm just so thankful for this opportunity," Cozy says, "I only made it this far, out of hundreds of thousands of people, because of the favor of God over my life. No matter how talented I might have been, I couldn't have done it without Him."

You can follow Cozy's story on Facebook and listen to his music on Spotify and Apple Music.