Charlotte Sometimes sat in the press area of Vans Warped Tour on a blisteringly hot Sunday afternoon and did her best to stay cool. She found a small patch of shade, drank water and fanned herself. In a few short hours, she would take the Acoustic Basement stage at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J., mere minutes from her hometown of Wall Township.
Sometimes took the time to give an exclusive interview to MStars prior to her performance on Sunday. But a rare disease could have prevented her from ever performing again at all.
At 16, Sometimes was diagnosed with condylar resorption, a disorder in which her jaw essentially broke apart. She needed to have two ribs removed and placed into her face to reconstruct everything.
Fortunately, she is perfectly fine today and was able to appear on Season 2 of NBC's "The Voice" as part of Blake Shelton's team. She advanced to the live rounds before she was eliminated.
Here's what she had to say about her disease, performing at home, new music and more:
MStars: You're playing this gig in what is essentially your backyard. What do you think it's going to be like playing for what's essentially a hometown crowd?
Sometimes: I think they're going to be really excited. I think it'll be fun. Or they could be really over it. They're like, "We can see you anytime we want so we don't care about you!" So I don't know. It could go either way and I'm curious to find out and see what's gonna happen.
Have you had the chance to connect with anybody from home?
I don't know, we'll see what happens. I have some family coming, so that'll be nice.
I want to talk about the disease that you were diagnosed with at 16. That would obviously scare anybody. Did you have a fear that you might not be able to sing ever again? Did you think it was going to affect you in that way?
Yeah, I think you just naturally go there. It's a scary thing to have that kind of disease but I just didn't really give myself any other option. I was like, "This is what I'm gonna do."
Do you ever go back to that? Does it ever make you nervous or self-conscious or is it something that you've put behind you?
I still get really nervous because I feel like I don't look the way that I was going to look if I didn't have my disease, even though my jaw functions now. So it's a bittersweet kind of thing.
I'm always really super self-conscious about the way I look, my face, because of it. But I'm lucky I can chew, I can breathe, I can sing. And if anybody doesn't like that, they can go fuck themselves.
You had quite a bit of success before you ever went onto "The Voice." How and why did you decide to take that experience and go onto the show?
I had gotten a call from casting about doing an audition. At first I was like, "Why would I do a reality show? I'm not a reality show kind of girl." But then I thought to myself, "Don't say no before they say no." That's such a bad way to look at life and to go about things. So I just decided to go for it and then see what happens and then I just kept getting through. It was a great experience.
Looking back on it now, how would you characterize the experience? You were working with Blake Shelton. He's kind of dominated the show over the course of its run.
It was super fun. I learned a lot. It was nice to be on that scale of things and be able to perform to that many people. And I get to work with so many great celebrities and artists and live in quarters with all these other amazing artists and it was a great experience. I am very pleased with it.
How do you feel it helped your career thereafter?
It just was another platform that more people know about me, more opportunities. It's just like anything else. I don't think it's the end-all, be-all for anybody. But I don't think anything is. It's a business so you're always going to have to keep working towards something.
You put out Circus Head last year. Are you working on anything new or are you just focusing on touring for now?
Yeah, I just did a live acoustic record. It's five songs of fan-favorites and one new song and that will come out in the fall. And then I'm working on a full-length.
Anything you can tell us about that as far as what it's going to look like or sound like?
You're just gonna have to stay tuned!
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