Second local singer on ‘The Voice’ a former athlete whose life changed after car accident
The second singer from the Wichita area competing on NBC’s “The Voice” is a 19-year-old Maize High School graduate and former baseball player who turned to music after a 2023 car crash sidelined his sports career.
Kameron Jaso was only on screen for 25 seconds on Monday night’s episode — and the show never identified him as being from Kansas. But a publicist for the show said two weeks ago — right after Derby’s Jaelen Johnston appeared as a contestant — that two singers from the area would be competing this season. On Wednesday, she made good on her promise to make him available for a Zoom interview.
On Monday night’s episode, Jaso was briefly featured during a montage showing contestants who had been chosen to continue to the competition’s next round. Viewers saw him performing a cover of Niall Horan’s song “This Town” as he strummed a guitar. They then saw celebrity judge Michael Buble hit a button that spun his chair around, indicating he was interested in having Jaso compete on his team of singers.
“Kameron had what I think was a really gentle and pure voice,” Buble said in the clip. “And the moment I turned around and saw the whole package, I have a really funny feeling there’s going to be a few coaches that might be kicking themselves a little later.”
The clip ends with Buble hugging Jaso and giving him a Vancouver Giants jersey. (Buble, a co-owner of the team, famously gives all his singers jerseys.)
The premise of the show: Four celebrity judges choose teams of singers (the other three this season are Kelsea Ballerini, John Legend and Adam Levine) and indicate who they’re interested in recruiting by spinning their chairs around to face a contestant whose voice they like. The celebrities then coach their team members as they compete and get bragging rights if one of their singers wins.
On the Feb. 10 episode, Johnston’s audition was shown, and he was ultimately chosen for Ballerini’s team.
During an interview on Wednesday, Jaso said that he doesn’t remember much from the day months ago that his audition was filmed in Hollywood. He kind of blacked out until he was back at his hotel, he said.
Only Buble turned his chair when Jaso sang, he said, but that didn’t bother him. He became a big Buble fan during his experience.
“My mom and my girlfriend were backstage rooting for me, and they come up and we got a big old group hug,” Jaso said of the moments after Buble chose him. “He is just so awesome. He’s a professional, but he’s also really funny, joking all the time. “
Jaso said that before his car accident, music was just a hobby. He’d sing in the car with his mom and taught himself to play guitar.
But baseball was his thing.
The accident changed his priorities, though, he said. That day, he was driving, and his girlfriend was in the passenger seat. Another driver ran a red light at 29th and Ridge, Jaso said, and his car was hit on the driver’s side.
His girlfriend suffered a fractured rib in the accident, he said, but Jaso had a seizure and spent a couple of days in the ICU. He was diagnosed with a severe concussion, and he had to sit out the rest of his senior baseball season.
“It hit me that baseball isn’t everything,” he said. “If I’m not doing baseball right now and I have all this time on my hands... I picked music back up and fell back in love with it.”
Though Jaso did accept a college scholarship to play baseball at Central Christian College of Kansas in McPherson, he quit school when he learned he’d be on “The Voice,” deciding he wanted to devote all his energy to music.
He’d auditioned online, Jaso said, and when he learned he’d be flying to California to audition for the celebrity judges, he was “freaking out.”
Jaso can play several instruments, including the guitar, the ukulele and the piano, and he’s also a songwriter. Near the end of his senior year, he started getting hired to play at weddings and at little gigs around town. One of the venues he played was OutWest in Goddard, which is now closed but at the time was owned by his friend’s dad.
Jaso and Johnston were on the same plane when they flew to California to record, he said, and during the process of recording, they became good friends. Sometimes, they’ll get together and work on songs. Sometimes they’ll play gigs together.
“That’s my guy right there,” Jaso said. “We told each other, ‘If any of us go, we’re taking each other with us.’”
Most of the season has already been recorded, including the next rounds, called “the battle rounds.” Neither Jaso nor Johnston will appear on screen again until those start in March. Eventually, the show will begin airing live episodes again.
Jaso isn’t allowed to say how far he made it in the competition, but he did say that stardom isn’t necessarily his goal.
“A lot of people will ask me, ‘Do you want to be famous? Do you want to be a big artist that everybody listens to?’” he said. “And I tell them, ‘No, I don’t.’ I don’t want to be the mainstream artist of radio play. Maybe if I do, that’s awesome, I’ll take that... But really, I just want to work in the music industry. I want people to listen to my music. It doesn’t necessarily have to be me singing it.”
To hear Jaso’s music, visit his Instagram page at @kam_316_
We’ll publish updates on both Wichita singers as this season of “The Voice” progresses.
This story was originally published February 26, 2025 at 2:43 PM.
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