(upbeat music)

- If you're a fan of NBC's"The Voice" competition

you know when contestantstry out they're praying

that just one of the judgeswill turn around and pick them.

Well during Todd Tilghman's audition

all four judges swungaround in their seats.

So it's no wonder that Tilghmanwound up the 2020 winner.

- [Reporter] Pastor Todd Tilghmangrew up singing in church,

but never had professional training.

Todd's wife and a friend encouraged him

to try out for NBC'sshow called "The Voice".

He reluctantly agreed.

Not only did he have all four judges

trying to get Todd on their team,

but Todd was also declared

the 2020 season 18 winner of "The Voice".

He's here to talk about his journey.

- Please welcome to "The700 Club" Todd Tilghman.

Todd it's great to have you with us today.

- Hey thank you so much.

- You had never sung professionally

when you went on "The Voice",

were you stunned when allfour judges spun around?

What were you thinking?

- Yeah, certainly I was.

You know, everyone keptasking me beforehand,

"Which one of thesecoaches would you like?"

And I was like,

"I'm gonna go with whicheverone turns around" (laughs).

I was completely, completely stunned

when I all four of them turned.

- Well there was a point

where you almost skippedauditioning for "The Voice",

what happened there andwhat changed your mind?

- Well, I'll tell you,first of all we had just had

a super busy time in our lives,

but second of all, and reallymore prevalent I think,

I just assumed that I wouldjust get a no, you know?

And so, I was like, "Why would I drive",

'cause I had to drive severalhours to go to the audition,

but what changed my mind was my wife.

We've said a billion times in our marriage

that she's the gas andI'm the breaks (laughs).

So she just pushed meover the edge to do it.

- You chose, after all four turned around,

to work with Blake Shelton as your coach,

what was that like?

- That was as great asI thought it would be.

I choose him hoping that whatI had seen of him was genuine,

which is just that he's kindof easygoing and laid back,

really professional as well,

and that was all true.

He's not such a stickler,

that just would've mademe too nervous (laughs).

- Speaking of nervous, because of COVID-19

the regular productionof the show was changed,

and that actually helped youa little bit with nerves,

talk about that.

- Well, I'll say this, theaudience part of it was great.

I love an audience.

So the audience didn't make me so nervous,

but it did help that I wassort of in my own environment.

Like a lot of people haveasked about the audience,

but that's really notit, I love the audience.

They're great and there's a lot of energy,

but I was sort of in my own environment.

And also, I would say for me

the most nerves, or anxiety,or whatever you want to say,

came from my company.

All of the other artistswere so great, you know,

and I was in a competition with them.

- Well tell us a little bit,

the show finals, you sang"I Can Only Imagine".

That was a very popular song of course,

but it's been sung so much,

did you think you were gonna win?

- No, I can tell you just categorically

I actually just assumed thatI wouldn't win (laughs).

- You're a pastor, you'rethe dad of eight children,

winning this has tohave impacted your life,

how has that changed your family's life?

- Our family, you know,remarkably you would think

that when something like this happens

and there's so many morethings happening that,

especially myself, that I have to do,

that it would sort of belike hard to come together,

but I actually think this hascaused us to come even closer.

We've always been a reallyclose family, you know,

but I think it caused useven to come closer together.

Everybody's really on boardwith what's happening.

And then also there are

other opportunities that have come up

that really focus on our entire family,

not just me and what happened on the show.

- Are your kids musical?

- A couple of them are.

All of my kids, especiallythe ones that are older

and you can see their gifts, you know,

that as they develop,

but even the little kids.

They all have really,really remarkable gifts,

and a couple of them are musical.

- So is this a new career for you?

I understand that you have a CD,

you've got a book possibility,

and a reality TV show in the offering,

what is the future look like for you?

- You know, I don't really know.

I'm not really releasing,

when I say a CD I'm not reallyreleasing any new music,

what I'm doing is I'll have a CD,

I have a show right now that'sin Pigeon Forge, Tennessee,

so I'm just releasing a CD

that's got a few of those songs on it

and it's not gonna belike digital or anything,

but yeah, there's a book thing.

And so, what I've saida hundred times really

is that I know my life

and our families livesare drastically changing,

but the exact parameters of that,

we're just sort of having faithand letting them play out.

I don't really know what they are.

- What's your heart with all of this Todd?

What's your dream?

- What I would love to do,

and this is another thing thatI've said a bunch of times,

I would love to sharemy faith, and my family,

and who I am with the world,

and that I show the worldthat there's someone like me

who just loves themunconditionally, I just love you,

but maybe not necessarilypackage it in a way

that is just so strictly only faith-based.

Do you see what I mean?

So that hopefully other peoplemight look into it and say,

"You know, here's a regular everyday guy

and he took a chance,

and look, it paid off and he'ssort of regular" (laughs).

- Well can I say that whenthis COVID thing is over

and concerts are allowed again,

you're gonna need a big RV (laughs).

- Yeah, we're actually, that's a weird,

it's just such a weirdtime in my life (laughs).

- It's a weird time in all of our lives.

(both laugh)

- Right, right.

- Seriously.

Well we congratulate you onyour win, how very exciting.

And we pray God's blessing andfavor on you, on your family,

and that picture you paintthat with God at the center

all things are possibleis when we embrace.

God bless you.

- Yes ma'am.

Thank you so much.

- Great to talk to you.

- You too, bye-bye.

- Bye-bye.