If you were a basketball player who gets to meet whoever you consider the G.O.A.T. — Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Bill Russell, whoever — what would that be like?

Or if you were a football player who gets to meet Joe Montana or Tom Brady or Dick Butkus or Baker Mayfield, what would that be like?

But what if you were an aspiring singer and you could sing to gain the approval of musical icons like Reba McEntire, the Queen of Country; Snoop Dogg, singer/songwriter, record producer and media personality; Michael Bublé, five-time Grammy award winner and multi-platinum singer; and Gwen Stefani, threetime Grammy-winning singer and fashion designer. What would that be like?

If you’re Sallisaw’s Drake Hyde on the stage of a reality competition television series, you’d be on an adrenaline high and your hands would be tingling and numb, then you would wow everyone with a voice destined for greatness.

That was Hyde when his audition on NBC’s “The Voice” aired last Monday night.

For those who don’t watch “The Voice,” four “coaches” sit facing away from the person auditioning. If the singer arouses the interest of a “coach” who thinks the singer may have the makings of a superstar, they turn their chair around to claim them for their team.

“I’ve had so much positive feedback, it’s overwhelming almost. I can hardly keep up with the texts [I’m receiving],” Hyde says of the response following his performance on national TV.

“It’s a great thing to know that your community, especially — so many people have posted and commented, so many people tuned in — to know that your community is standing behind you and wanting you to succeed and saying great things afterwards. It’s an awesome and surreal thing,” he says.

Hyde, the 21-year-old son of LaCosta Oberste and grandson of Brenda Smith, is a graduate of Sallisaw and Connors State College, and is attending Oklahoma State University, where he’s studying natural resources and ecology. “Hopefully I get to do music for the rest of my life, but if that doesn’t work out, wildlife biologist is what I’d really love to do.”

Hyde’s journey

Hyde paved his way to the national stage with performances throughout the region, including at Sallisaw’s Diamond Daze and, coincidentally, twice at Reba’s Place in Atoka, among other venues, and while representing the Sallisaw FFA chapter at the 96th State Convention where he was named talent champion.

He spent this past summer in Los Angeles not only preparing for his debut on “The Voice,” but also meeting peer musicians and singers with whom he became friends and collaborators.

“It was great. I had an awesome time out there. I met some amazing people, and I made some friends that I’ll probably talk to for the rest of my life,” Hyde recalls.

“Growing up in Sequoyah County, there’s people who sing and there’s musicians, but I really didn’t have those kind of friends growing up. I didn’t have musical friends. I had friends that like music, but didn’t do music. I didn’t have anybody teaching me how to sing. Everything was trial and error.

“I started singing with a house band at a dance hall, and then I started my own band. We’d travel and play as much as we’re able to. But being from a small town, you don’t get to play in front of many people very often, so making it [to “The Voice”), it’s a blessing and I’m honored. I’m going to go out there, do my song the best I can and hope that they like it enough to turn for me.

“But going out there and meeting those people who grew up the same way — loving music and playing music and singing and all that — it’s a whole new world of people that you get to meet, and then you end up making great friends out of it,” he says.

“Some of those friends are still on there (“The Voice”), so make sure you watch them, because they’re good.”

Nervous energy

While Hyde’s performance of Collin Raye’s “Little Rock” appeared flawless on “The Voice,” he wasn’t without understandable jitters. “That’s probably the most nervous I’ve ever been performing. I had so much adrenaline pumping through, my hands were tingling the whole time. My hands felt numb. It’s a humbling experience, too. You go out there and you sing in front of the world,” Hyde says.

But when none of the coaches turned around to claim him for their team, he received feedback about his performance and professional advice about his future.

“When they turned around, Reba’s face looked not happy,” Hyde says of his first reaction to seeing the coaches. “She didn’t look happy, so I thought, ‘she’s about to tell me I sucked’.”

But Reba’s face betrayed her assessment of her fellow Okie.

Reba gushed about Hyde’s talent, as did Snoop Dogg and Stefani, while Bublé offered constructive criticism.

“The only one who had anything negative to say was Michael Bublé about my pitch. Everyone else, they all — Snoop Dogg and Reba — they just kind of went on and on, of course, they kind of cut some of it short. They just went on and on about loving my voice and loving the song and loving how I did it,” Hyde says, noting that many further remarks were edited from the broadcast due to time constraints.

“To have that positive feedback, especially from the Queen of Country, the genre that I sing in, I really wasn’t even beat up about not getting a chair turn. I got told that by worldrenowned recording artist Snoop Dogg. He owns production studios and [record] labels. And then Reba, every country singer would love to hear Reba tell them ‘I love your voice.’ That’s a great thing.

Royal favor

“So I wasn’t beat up too bad about it. A lot of people didn’t get a chair turn. They’re like ‘I just don’t think you’re there yet.’ But to be told that they thought you did great was really encouraging. And to hear Reba say ‘I think you did a heck of a job’ was great, too.

“I know she knows who Collin Raye is. That was one of the things that made me the most nervous. She knew the song I was going to do. She knew the song when she heard it. She knows Collin Raye, she knows his music, she knows how it’s supposed to sound, she knows the range, she knows that song. That’s what made it more nerve-wracking for me was I wanted to do the song justice,” Hyde says of his mindset performing “Little Rock.”

“I wanted a chair turn, but at the same time, I wasn’t going out there to get a chair turn. I just wanted to do the song justice and make the song sound good, because you’re singing in front of [Reba]. I didn’t want her to turn around and say, ‘You know, I know that song, I don’t think that was the right song for you.’ But to hear her say she thinks I did a great job on the song made me feel really good, because that’s honestly what I went out there to do was do that song justice and make her proud.

“It’s been great, because I’ve hardly had anybody say anything other than ‘Man, you did awesome. I liked it. You should keep going’.”

Hyde’s only regret was that his performance was edited for broadcast.

“The only thing I didn’t like watching it was they cut out the best part of my song. They cut out the middle section, which I know they did it for airing time. There’s a whole bridge of that song, and I sang that. If I had gotten a chair turn, I think they would have aired the whole song, but since I didn’t — I’m happy that I made it on TV, even though I didn’t get a chair turn,” he says.

Coaches’ feedback

The feedback he received from the coaches during the broadcast was widely positive.

“You’ve got a real mature voice. Your voice sounds like a real, real strong urban cowboy,” Snoop Dogg told him.

“You’re in a big, big room, and you’re getting your music acoustically, [so] sometimes it’s hard to keep your pitch. That was kind of a signal for me not to turn,” Bublé said in his evaluation.

“We’ve all been told ‘no’ a million times, and that’s part of what puts the chip on your shoulder. You say, ‘I’m going to show those people who should have turned the chair for me. And now I’m going to go out and become a big star and make a fool of Michael ‘Bubble’,” the Grammy award-winner said.

Stefani spoke of what she saw as both the good and the bad.

“Sometimes your voice sounds a little nasally — now who am I to say, because mine does,” she said. “But there’s a way that that can sound very cool and distinctive, and it really works within country. I just think you need to warm that up. So I say go home, do some more work and come back and see us, and I bet you’re going to get a chair turn.”

Then Reba acknowledged her connection with Hyde.

“Hi there fellow Okie. I’ve been through Sallisaw many, many times,” she said. “I loved your singing, I loved your voice, I love the song you sang — Collin Raye’s song. If you do come back, and if I’m here, you better believe I’ll be turning for you, because I thought you did a heck of a job. I’m very proud of you. I hope to see you sometime back in Oklahoma.”

Then, as the broadcast transitioned to a commercial break, Reba and Stefani could be heard beneath the music still praising Hyde.

“That just breaks my heart,” Reba told Stefani.

“He’s so cute,” Stefani replied.

“Drake is a wonderful singer. I kick my butt for not turning around for a fellow Okie,” Reba told Stefani in confidence. “But if I don’t feel it, I’m going to pass, because you have to feel what they’re singing.”

A promising future

Despite not advancing on “The Voice,” Hyde is committed to advancing his singing career.

“I will never stop singing. I will never stop performing, until the people that come and listen to me say they don’t want to hear me anymore,” he says.

“I’m actually working on an album right now, and a single. I’m going to release a single at the end of this month to middle of November. I’m really excited for that, because I want to hear people’s feedback on that. It’s going to be called ‘Talking to Myself.’ It will most likely be digital. I’ll put it out on streaming platforms, then, of course, my Instagram page and my TikTok page, try to get it out there as much as I can. And talk to some radio stations as well, try to get it on the air,” Hyde says.

“In terms of going back to ‘The Voice,’ it’s definitely a possibility. They (people at ‘The Voice’) have reached out to several people from this last season who didn’t make it, and have said ‘We’re considering bringing you back.’ That’s not a ‘Hey, we’re going to bring you back!’ They’re considering it. They’ve got a million people of new talent to go through, then they’ve got thousands of people who’ve been on before to think about bringing back. If they email me and say ‘Hey, we want you to come back,’ I would definitely do it, no doubt in my mind. I would do it in a heartbeat. I would encourage anybody that sings to try to get there.

“My favorite part wasn’t even the audition. My favorite part was meeting the people. I made a really close group of friends,” he says of his friends from North Carolina, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Las Vegas. “Being able to sit outside and sing with them and play with them — they weren’t all country, one of them is an ‘Earth, Wind & Fire’ singer. That’s humbling, too, being from a little county and you’re singing these Merle Haggard and George Strait songs, and then you hear these people start belting out those songs.”

Then Hyde revealed that he and his “tight group of friends” are currently working on a song inspired by Quincy Jones’ 1985 hit “We Are the World,’ which featured a wide variety of many of the era’s biggest singing stars.

“I wrote a gospel song while I was in Los Angeles,” he recalls. “We’re going to all sing it together, kind of like ‘We Are the World,’ that song where they got all those musicians together who are different. That’s kind of what I was going for. That was one thing that really drew us together, I believe, because we were all pretty connected with God.

“Now we’re all working on. We’re all going to do it together and try to make it a pretty bid deal — big production style with a choir and a good band. We’re all going to sing different verses, and then sing the choruses together. That’s one thing I’m super excited for,” Hyde says.