Grey Oakes was four years old when American Idol premiered on Fox. He remembers following the journey of season four winner Carrie Underwood, and he remembers his hometown of McLeansville, North Carolina going wild during season 5 for Chris Daughtry, who lived in the same neighborhood as Oakes. Now, he has a new memory relating to the iconic show: earning one of the 40 Golden Tickets at the Asheville, NC audition for the American Idol reboot.

After four years of learning music theory by playing the piano, Oakes started playing guitar when he was 13. While taking guitar lessons for three years, he began to sing, looking to John Mayer and Ed Sheeran as his inspirations. Throughout high school, Oakes self-produced an album and played on 107.5 KZL in Durham, NC, at open mic nights at coffee shops and at weddings.

In fall 2016, Oakes came to UNC Wilmington, backed by a scholarship through the music program to play jazz guitar; he decided to double major in communication studies and business and minor in history instead. Still, music remained an integral part of his life, and he took the campus by storm in February 2017 by making it to the second round of Dub Idol.

When ABC announced they were picking up American Idol only one year after it ended on Fox, Oakes decided to take a chance and try to go forward with his music career. Oakes, along with over 6000 others, auditioned in Asheville, NC over Labor Day Weekend for a spot on the reboot.

“It’s a lot different [with ABC] than it was with Fox,” Oakes says. “For starters, Ryan Seacrest wasn’t there.”

On that day, Oakes was taken into one of the four tents where mystery judges were waiting to hopefully find the next Idol. Caleb Johnson – the season 13 winner, Asheville native and Oakes’ favorite winner – judged Oakes as he sang “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers.

“He seemed really hyped,” Oakes says about Johnson’s reaction. “He said, ‘You’re only 19 and really good at guitar. Really good. I’m positive you’ll go really far if you stay in the vein of bluesy-rock-pop.’”

Then Johnson gave Oakes the famous Golden Ticket. As Oakes walked out of the tent, thousands of people screamed for him.

“I felt like a gladiator,” Oakes says.

The cameras were on Oakes immediately after everyone started screaming. The producers brought him into a separate room with only those who earned a Golden Ticket. They had Oakes do paperwork and interviewed him, asking for his life story. The producers told Oakes that the next step would be to audition in front of the judges in either New Orleans, Hollywood or Chicago in late October or early November. If he makes it past that round, he’ll be off to Hollywood for an extended amount of time.

“I’m thinking about bringing the cameras to UNCW if I make it to the Hometown Week,” Oakes says, although he is unsure if ABC will be doing things the same as Fox’s version of the show.

If American Idol doesn’t work out for Oakes, he still plans on moving to Los Angeles and working on getting a record label to sign him.

“I’d like to write songs,” Oakes says of his career aspirations. “It’s my best talent. If I get the audience, I can make stuff people want to listen to. If I don’t get signed, I could also do a Chance The Rapper route and get a good following on social media and make it that way.”

As for the time being, Oakes can be found on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube with both covers and original songs.