Simon Cowell starts with a reservation. The first half of Lincoln Bridge’s song, he says, was “okay.” Someone immediately objects: “What?” Then he gets to the change in pace, the moment the group slowed down and let the lead voice come through. His verdict becomes “sensational.” He says it twice.
The four singers walked onstage in casual clothes, introduced themselves and explained that they had known one another since childhood. Asked why they entered America’s Got Talent, one member pointed to a friend’s ambition. “This dude right here, he’s just a big dreamer. And because of his huge dreams, we got together, man.”
By the time the judges finish responding, one singer has covered his face. Asked why they are so emotional, the men struggle to answer and encourage one another to speak. Their reaction gives this collection of auditions its strongest opening: four people trying to absorb public approval for something they have worked toward in private.
Lincoln Bridge find the words
The group embrace before the judges deliver their verdicts. One judge admits to being “a bit speechless”; another asks whether they make a living singing. They say no. Cowell’s praise carries a possibility beyond that evening: “This could be your time.”
That is when the conversation becomes harder than the performance. One member starts an answer, stops, then asks another to take over. “Take your time, bro,” a voice reassures him. Eventually, one of the singers explains what has kept him working.
“It’s just that voice inside that tells you to never give up. You know what I’m saying?”
Heidi Klum returns to the friend whose ambitions brought them there. “Aren’t you happy that you listened to your friend who has big dreams to bring you out here to do this?” she asks. Four yeses follow. Afterward, a member puts the stakes in plain language: “This is all we got.”
The judges cannot settle the group’s future with a vote. They can give them another chance to sing. For men who have trouble getting through a sentence after the performance, that is enough to make the result feel personal.
Broken Roots take their first shared stage
Broken Roots arrive with a different kind of uncertainty. Joey and Austin Edwards, from Chicago, say they met six months earlier. Both have worked in law enforcement. One is a homicide detective in the Chicagoland area; the other says he recently resigned and plans to open a music school for children.
They explain that music became an outlet for experiences on the job they would rather other people never had to witness. They had played the same circuit, but their connection began when one came to the other’s show. Now they are making their first performance together on this stage.
Before starting, the two guitarists share a fist bump. Afterward, they hug with their acoustic guitars still in their hands. Howie Mandel tells them they sounded as though they had been performing together for decades. Klum praises their vocal tone and calls their friendship a “recent bromance.”
Then a question about children takes the conversation somewhere else. One member says his wife died of cancer. Their sons, Noah and Jacob, are now nine and 11. Years later, he met someone else, and they now have a baby daughter together.
He shares that history after the judges have praised the music. Cowell expresses sympathy and speaks about the friendship the two men have formed. Broken Roots receive four yeses, with an invitation to keep developing a partnership they have barely begun.
When confidence is part of the performance
Rough Copy need little encouragement to announce their ambitions. Asked which band they want to be as big as, they answer, “No one. We want to be the biggest band.” They have played plenty of gigs, they say, but this is their biggest day so far.
They perform with the same appetite for attention. A singer kneels directly in front of the judges’ table; later, a performer drops to the floor and leans back at the song’s climax. Gary praises both their voices and their ease onstage, then predicts they will be “an absolute nightmare to mentor.”
The exchange stays playful because the judges have enjoyed the performance. One calls it a brilliant audition. Another tells them not to change. Here, the challenge for a mentor would be preserving their confidence while getting them to listen.
The Craig Lewis Band bring ten years of shared experience to their entrance. Jeffrey Lewis and Zuri introduce themselves as singers from Atlanta. Asked where they perform, they say everywhere, especially places that give them food. “Because we love to eat,” one explains.
In matching denim jackets, they take on “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.” They lean close together as they sing into their microphones, but the judges also notice what separates their voices. Mel B praises the different qualities of each singer and their individual solo passages.
Howard Stern calls the song difficult and tells them they came out “like pros.” Mandel picks up their earlier joke: they deserve “a million dollar buffet.” When all four judges say yes, the duo throw their hands into the air. Their opening humor has given the panel a way to celebrate a performance it takes seriously.
RL Bell divides the table
For RL Bell, the amount of showmanship becomes the argument. The 50-year-old massage therapist from Houston explains that clients have asked him to sing while he works. Trying to concentrate on his hands and voice at once proved awkward, so he started playing a CD he had recorded at home.
Onstage, he gives the judges much more than a voice to assess. He strips off his long coat, revealing a sleeveless shirt and muscular arms. Klum enjoys the spectacle, listing the coat, the changing voice and the muscles as parts of an entertaining performance.
Cowell thinks Bell has overdone it. “I like a little bit of sugar in my tea, but I like one teaspoon,” he says. “That was like a whole bag of sugar.” He wants Bell to drop the clothes-removal routine and concentrate on singing. Bell answers that he wanted “Mrs. Jones to know what I was talking about.”
The disagreement continues into the vote. Mandel says no, questioning whether Bell has understood the criticism. Klum wants him to go further and says yes. Mel B also wants to see him again. Cowell pauses before making a distinction between the audition he has seen and the singer Bell could become. He takes a chance and gives him the deciding yes.
Bell advances without a shared set of instructions. Two judges welcome the excess; two think it distracts from his voice. His next performance will have to answer criticism that the panel itself cannot agree on.
A smaller judge joins the panel
Joseph returns after an earlier audition with a more intimate test ahead. He says he watched himself back and tried to grow. When the judges ask about his five-year-old son, Kian, they invite the boy in to watch.
Kian runs onto the stage and hugs his father. Nicole Scherzinger then lifts him onto her lap at the judges’ table. Joseph tells his son there must be no funny faces: “Daddy’s got to do a good audition.” Asked what he wants from the day, he says a music career and the chance to make his family’s life a little better.
During the song, Kian raises both fists in rhythm. Later, Joseph carries him offstage, smiling. The family Joseph has been talking about is there in his arms.
Watch the video for the performances between these conversations: the slower passage Cowell singles out in Lincoln Bridge’s audition, Broken Roots’ first shared appearance, and the flourishes that divide the panel over Bell. Listen to what each singer does before the judges explain what they heard.