Javier Colón performs at Tanger Outlets

Javier Colón was almost the champion who never was. The first winner of NBC's hit series "The Voice" nearly backed out of the competition the night before his audition. Turned down by a record label where he thought he had a shot just two weeks earlier and recovering from a cold, Colón says he was "kind of making excuses on why I shouldn't go," until his older brother convinced him he had nothing to lose by trying out.

The handsome 34-year-old Connecticut native, who describes himself as a singer-songwriter with soul, has been writing music since the age of 13. He is the father of two -- Solana, 3 1/2, and Amaia, 22 months -- with wife Maureen.

Later this month, Colón heads up a brief tour of the show's Top 8 contestants, which finishes Aug. 6 at the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan. But you can see Colón free Saturday at Tanger Outlets at the Arches in Deer Park, where he performs his hit single, "Stitch by Stitch," and other songs at 6 p.m. We spoke with Colón earlier this week.

Have you ever tried out for any other singing competition show, other than "The Voice"?

Not at all, this was the first one, I had ever tried.

I was wondering how the blind audition [for "The Voice"] came about for you?

My manager got an email telling him about the show and that they were holding auditions. ... He forwarded me the email, saying that this is maybe something that we should try. It was actually two weeks after getting rejected by yet another record label. ... At first I didn't think they would allow me to audition, because I had the deal before and such. But we inquired about it, and that wasn't the case. ... Several times I almost passed on the opportunity, for one reason or another. ... My brother actually talked me into it the night before the audition because I wasn't going to go because I wasn't feeling too too well, I was kind of getting over a cold and I said, "You know what, I don't think I should go," and kind of making excuses on why I shouldn't go, and my brother was like, "Well, what else do you have going on? What else are you going to do? You're in a situation where record labels are not clamoring to talk to you. You're doing college shows to pay the bills." And at that time, I maybe had five college shows that were spread out over a three-month time span, and then no shows set up in the summer, and I didn't know how I was going to pay the bills. My brother kind of pointed this out, "What's it going to hurt to try this?" And I said, "You know what? You're right. I should go and give it a shot." And I'm glad that I did.

Since all four coaches rang in and wanted you on their team, what made you pick Adam [Levine]?

I went into the blind audition thinking, you know I really just want somebody to turn around [and select him]. One coach, and I would have been happy with whoever that was. And I also thought, if I was lucky enough to get more than one coach, I really was going to go by a gut feeling ... really just kind of try to read them and feel them out and see who I felt really wanted me on their team. ... I tried to go in there with no favorites in mind. ... But I was partial to Adam, I was partial to Blake, as well. Go figure. . . . I got there, Adam and Cee Lo [Green] were the first to turn around, and then Adam was so enthusiastic and excited about what I was doing onstage -- I mean he was almost distracting me as I was singing my audition song ... And it was that enthusiasm that really won me over. And then when I was done singing, he was just very frank. He was, "Listen, I really want to win this. I really need you on my team." And I really believed him. I really believed his passion and that he thought I would be an asset to his team. And that's why I chose him.

I read you started writing songs at the age of 13. Do you have any musical influences or musicians in your family?

The influence that comes to mind in my family is my father ... a radio DJ at a Spanish radio station while we were growing up, and then he ultimately ended up becoming an owner of a small station in Bridgeport, Conn., where I grew up. A lot of the influence in our house was listening to radio. ... It was just a constant background noise in our house with music. My earliest influences were Spanish influences, like José Feliciano and Julio Iglesias, guys like that. And then as we got older -- I have an older brother as I mentioned and an older sister ... they would switch the station on the radio and we would listen to other things. It was a mixture of R&B to pop to rock. It was a bit of everything. ... And when I started writing stuff when I was 13, I was really listening to a lot of Top 40 radio. ... It was everything from Poison to Phil Collins and Stevie Wonder.

Anybody in particular that you listen to today?

I'm a big James Taylor fan. A lot of what I play on the guitar is, you know I listen to him a lot, so a lot of the way he plays has made its way into what I do. I listen to everything, from Coldplay to Beyoncé to, goodness, some old Sam Cooke and Otis Redding and Donny Hathaway, to some India.Arie or to some John Mayer, Jack Johnson, you name it.

When you got to do the "Landslide" duet with Stevie Nicks on the finale, how did that come about?

Adam told me a few days before, he said, "I have a surprise for you, you're going to be singing with Stevie Nicks." And I'm like, "You're kidding me." And he said, "No, you're going to be singing with Stevie Nicks and you better get ready because you're going to be doing rehearsal with her in a couple of days." And I was like, "Oh, my goodness." ... I was just super-nervous going into the rehearsal, but it didn't really hit me until I was standing there with her onstage, running through the song in rehearsal the day of the show ... I looked to my left, and I see her and she's looking into my eyes and we're singing harmony, and I'm like, "Oh, my God, I'm singing with Stevie Nicks." And I actually got a little emotional about it because of the amazing opportunity that it was and that four months ago if you had told me I'd be singing with Stevie Nicks on national television, I would have called you crazy. ... And I'll never forget that performance or that rehearsal as long as I live.

The sync with the two of you was so great, how much time did you actually get to rehearse the song with her?

We sang the song down three times, I think, before we did it on TV.

On the final performance show, you sang the original song "Stitch by Stitch." Since you are a songwriter, did you ever wish that you could have sung one of your original songs during the course of the show?

Absolutely. I really, really wanted to, but, unfortunately, some of the ones I wanted to had already been released and we weren't allowed to do any songs that had already been released. But, you know what? I love "Stitch by Stitch." When I first heard it, it sounded exactly like me. There were a couple of tweaks that were made to make it more my own, that I helped with, but for the most part, it was written by some other folks. They did an amazing job at writing a song that fit me. ... I was really happy with the finished product, I think it really came out great.

I was watching an interview where you did an acoustic version and I was trying to decide whether I liked the acoustic version better. I really think I did.

Thank you. You know, I like to write songs from the ground up, whether it starts with the piano or whether it starts with the guitar, and if they had sent me a song that I really didn't feel could be stripped down like that and done the way that I do it, then I really wouldn't have wanted that song. ... Just listening to the intro, I already knew where my fingers had to go [on the guitar] and I knew how to play the song without even having to think about it. And that's what I loved about the song on the first listen. But, you know, maybe at some point I might do an acoustic version that we could release. I do have an acoustic EP that I released last year called "The Truth-Acoustic EP," that's available on my website [javiercolon.com], as well as iTunes, and I did that for that very purpose: I wanted to give people an idea of what I sounded like just with the guitar and the vocal for the most part. Because the other stuff that I released for Capitol Records were much more produced albums.

You've said that when Carson Daly was about to name the winner, you didn't think it was going to be you. Why did you think that?

You know, there's nothing in this business that seems to ever really go my way. And it wasn't just that. I knew that my competition was extremely stiff. Between the three girls, and especially regarding Dia [Frampton], who was amazing and who is just such a wonderful artist. Not only that, a wonderful person. There's not really a way for us to calculate how close the votes are to each other, week to week. The only thing you can really look at is iTunes sales. You know, over the course of the last few weeks, we would look at iTunes sales and Dia and I were always neck-and-neck. I would be ahead and then other times she would be ahead. So in the last couple of weeks she was ahead in those numbers and that's really the only tangible thing that I could really see and really understand that kind of gave some kind of concrete numbers to shed any kind of light on who people were favoring.

So just because she was No. 1 and you were No. 2 [for the final performance releases] is that the reason you thought ...

It wasn't just that, if you go back to the week before, she was No. 3 and I was No. 5. And if you go to the week before that, we were really close again, I think she might have edged me out one point as well. So, it was a culmination of the weeks together that made me think, "You know what, there are a lot of people that love Dia." And rightfully so, because she is amazing. So, I prepared myself for Carson to say her name.

I think you were all amazing in you own ways. It was four very different types of singers all so good. It was such a pleasure to watch the shows because of the level of the talent.

And I thank you for saying that and I completely agree. We all were different singers, but we all did what we do really well and I felt like every time we would get up there and every time we would watch the other contestants performing over the last four weeks -- even when it was in the Top 16 -- we felt like we were sitting there watching a Grammy-type performance. ... I felt that the folks that I was graced to be on the show with were just so amazing. You watch Vicci Martinez do "The Dog Days Are Over," for example, and I'm sitting there like this is a Grammy performance ... I mean it doesn't get any better.

I loved it.

I agree. My kids loved it, too. Vicci was their favorite artist on the show.

Why was she your kids' favorite? Was it because of her singing or that she's so nice? What was it that attracted your kids?

They loved her from the moment they saw her and they just gravitated toward her before they even knew her. They just loved her. They actually met Vicci briefly during the blind auditions phase, I think it was, or maybe it was the battle rounds phase. They saw Vicci on TV singing "Rolling in the Deep," and it was their favorite thing. If they were ever upset or we couldn't control them for some reason, they would ask to watch Vicci's video on YouTube on our phone. We would take it out and then they would be OK. They love her to death and I think that they were sad that she didn't win [laughs]. But they were happy that daddy won, but they were sad that Vicci didn't win.

When Carson Daly would question you about your family on the show you would become very emotional. Why was that?

When you become a father you realize that your life is not as important as the lives of your kids. You do everything for your kids and you want the best for them and what I was doing before this show I felt was not enough. ... I always want what's best for my family. I would get emotional about it because I knew that I was close to getting there, to finally being able to give them the life that I feel they deserve. ... I just wanted to make sure that I could take care of them and they could have their swimming lessons and their gymnastics lessons and all of the things that kids should be able to do without having my wife and I having to worry about how we were going to take care of these things.

You've been wearing a cap or a hat for a long time, not just on this show. Is there any significance to wearing it?

You know, it was just kind of a style thing. I just kind of got into wearing the hat.

In the past, you've performed with Joss Stone and Darius Rucker and the Indigo Girls and Chaka Khan. Do you have any idea what is different now that made you click, to give you the huge success on "The Voice"?

I definitely feel that the exposure that I got on the show was the important thing. And not only that, but then seeing me for who I am and the music that I love to do, like when they saw me with "Time After Time." It is one of my all-time favorite songs. And doing it in the way that I do it ... that was one of the first things that people saw and fortunately for me they liked it and it drew a bunch of attention. I think that might have been part of the missing piece, was just being to get out there and being able to get the exposure.

What would you call your style. How would you define it?

I like to write songs that move people. I would say I'm a singer-songwriter with a soulful voice, I guess. I wouldn't consider it R&B, I would consider it more of a pop-based, you know, singer-songwriter with soul. It's kind of like acoustic soul almost, I like to call it.

"The Voice" tour begins later this month. Was the tour a last-minute addition, or did the contestants know that the final eight would be touring?

We knew that there was the possibility of a tour, but we weren't sure on any dates or when it would be happening, if it was going to happen at all. So we knew that there was a possibility and when we found out we were doing it we were really excited to do it.

What happens to you professionally when the tour is done?

When the tour is done, I'll probably go back into the studio and do all the things that you need to do to release a record. ... But it's going to be pretty crunched. Usually you have it set up, when you're making a record, to have months, if not half a year, to make an album. But we're trying to get an album out in the next couple of months.

You indicated that both Adam and Cee Lo had expressed an interest in working with you. Is there anything that you can elaborate on?

Not at the moment, other than Adam and I have talked about trying to do something and I would love to do something with both of them. It would be awesome. Adam's got some ideas ... you know, either he could get his producer hat on or maybe I'll even have him guest on the song and he'll be singing with me. We still have yet to determine what we want to do, but definitely we're going to try to make something happen.

WHO Javier Colón

WHERE|WHEN 6 p.m., Saturday, Tanger Outlets at the Arches, 152 The Arches Circle, Deer Park

INFO Free; 631-667-0600