Pearland-native 'American Idol' contestant wows judges and gets golden ticket to Hollywood
PEARLAND, Texas (KTRK) -- A former University of Houston football player has punched his ticket to Hollywood!
On Sunday night's episode of "American Idol," Pearland-native Spencer Wells wowed the judges.
Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie all called Spencer's audition a "touchdown."
The 24-year-old medical sales representative sang "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon for his audition.
PREVIOUS REPORT: Pearland 'American Idol' contestant and former UH football player hopes for golden ticket on Sunday
"I'm jealous of your physique," Bryan said as Spencer walked into the room.
Spencer played tight end for the Houston Cougars for three years.
After his show-stopping audition, the judges welcomed Spencer's 16 family members in to celebrate. Bryan said he wanted to arm wrestle his brother, Tucker, who Spencer said is about 6'6" tall and 350 pounds.
"If you win, your brother goes to Hollywood," Perry told Tucker.
Right before the arm wrestling began, Bryan pulled his hand away and said, "He dislocated my thumb!" with a laugh.
After laughing off the failed arm wrestling match, Bryan shared the good news with Spencer's family.
"It wasn't even a contest. He got three 'yeses' from us. He's going to Hollywood," Bryan said.
ABC13 spoke to Spencer before his audition aired. He told us his musical talent came from his dad, who plays the piano.
"He played the piano all the time when I was younger, and I guess I can kind of attribute that to the ear I have for music," Wells said. "The first time I heard music or was around music was around my dad. And I guess that's just where I got it from."
Despite growing up around music, he said he didn't really know he could sing until high school. Wells told ABC13 his dad asked his choir teacher to put him in the school's pop show, and that's when he started to take singing more seriously.
Funny enough, Wells said his opportunity to audition for "Idol" all started with his dad getting a haircut.
"My dad was getting a haircut next door to a bar. A local bar, Friends Pub, that was having a karaoke competition," Wells said. "I entered the karaoke competition and ended up winning it, and one of the judges the last night of the show was actually affiliated with 'American Idol' from a previous season."
Wells said that was his foot in the door to score the "Idol" audition.
"Long story short, I had a few Zoom calls and got to get in front of Katy, Luke, and Lionel," he said.
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