The young man stepped up, mily members said, working to support his daughter, Rowan. Music took a back seat.
More than 250,000 people auditioned for the show in the spring.
Krajcik found work at the Downtown burrito restaurant Cinco while juggling performances and studio time most recently, to record his bands February release,Atavistic.
Turning 30 lit a fire under me to get out there and get seen, Krajcik said. There must have been something in me that said, Youve got to go big its now or never.
Beginning in the third grade, Krajcik shuffled through instructors after none was able to accommodate his freewheeling musical approach that eschewed sight-reading and basic theory.
The whole reason Im here doing this, Krajcik said that evening on the show, is for her.
Music just seeps from his soul.
He crisscrossed the United States two years later as a backing guitarist for singer-songwriter Gran Bel Fisher, a native of Sabina, but Fishers recording contract fell apart, and the touring ended.
We dont know where hes going. Its a gift. You cant teach that.
I said, Weve got to get him a piano, recalled grandmother Judy Oliver-Delaney, 75, who eventually pooled money with all the other grandmas in her neighborhood to buy him one.
In Columbus, too, viewing parties are held including one at Victorys on S. High Street. The Brewery District bar is giving out Krajcik shirts and erecting a mural of the singers likeness near a stage on which he he once performed.
Am hoping Josh Krajcik stops in Buflo/Niagara region when in NY to play and sing a few tunes. I&8217;ll be there!
Hes the guy whos comfortable at the corner bar just being that regular guy, said Bill Patterson, guitarist for the Columbus rock band the Wet Darlings, which performed with Krajcik during the summer at the Newport Music Hall.
Josh Krajcik&8217;s been seemingly level-headed throughout this competition. No matter what happens, he knows and has stated how important it is that he get in the studio and record as soon as he wins or leaves the show.
In May, he asked his mother for a ride to Chicago to audition and, because of the timing, made the difficult decision to miss his daughters birthday.
Totally agree with every word you said Glenn Soooooooooooooo want Josh to win but whatever the outcome Josh you are now a winner. Waiting for the release of your albums so I can listen to you ALL the time
Fast forward to Nov. 22, when Krajcik, seated alone at a piano, delivered a powerful cover of the Rolling StonesWild Horsesduring theTheX Factors giving thanks theme night with Rowan, now 13, in the audience.
Yet Krajcik had found the drive to want to succeed on a national stage.
Youve got to win every day.
At the Olde Jaol steakhouse and tavern in Wooster, crowds gather twice weekly for theX Factorperformance and results shows.
When Josh sings, he goes somewhere different kind of in a trance, said Bill Pim, 56.
I&8217;ve been following Josh since his audition. He had me at &8220;At Last.&8221; I&8217;ve been voting every week, 2 hours non stop and 50 times online. Next week I&8217;m dialing with 2 phones. I pray he wins. And I can&8217;t WAIT for his first CD. When he plays his first concert in Ohio, I&8217;ll be driving up from colleen labuskiTennessee to see him. He&8217;s just FANTASTIC and I can&8217;t wait to hear him in person! Whether he wins X-Factor or not, he will have a multi-record deal. Of that, I&8217;m SURE. No more slinging burritos for you, Josh!
Last week, the 30-year-old Krajcik again escaped elimination, advancing as one of five finalists on the inaugural stateside season of the Fox talent show. (A British competition since 2004, the program resemblesIdolbut allows groups and entrants as young as 12.)
Although he played trumpet in the elementary-school band and later sang in the choir, school didnt interest the young Krajcik, said his mother, a teacher who three years ago retired after 30 years with Triway Local Schools the same district from which her son graduated in 1999. Bill Pim, his stepther, teaches middle-school mathematics there.
The relationship between Krajcik and Labuski, meanwhile, fell apart. She left Ohio for upstate New York and took Rowan with her; Krajcik had only limited summer and holiday visits.
Carol JonesonJosh Krajcik is working with Natasha Bedingfield songwriters/producers &8211; Examiner.com
Theyve seen him through rock night, in which he excelled with a Foo Fighters cover; through a rendition of the Michael Jackson tuneDirty Dianasung before Jacksons immediate mily (a rendition that Cowell called overproduced); and through an intimate poolside performance at the coastal home of Scherzinger, his assigned vocal coach, who questioned whether the rough-around-the-edges Krajcik could truly be a star.
It was humbling to take a job as a burrito guy, Krajcik said. It felt kind of like giving up, even though I hadnt.
When the mily moved a few years later, though, their bulky upright was left behind.
Very nice article.
The kid just wanted to create.
Theres a ton of incredibly talented creative people who just never catch that break, said LaBarre, 33.
He deserves to win the XFactor for his sound and his diversity and not to mention a wonderful personality to go with it!! Josh is the Man!!!!!
Ive got to keep my nose to the grindstone, to bring it all home, said Krajcik, who spoke toThe Dispatchin late September. Ive just got to work hard.
The part-time gig has since become his offbeat calling card (When I come home from work, I smell like onions, he told Cowell before his debut).
People want to hear her childs voice.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. JoshKrajcik.us is the OFFICIAL Josh Krajcik Fan Site.
Steve LaBarre, a Victorys bartender who booked monthly Krajcik shows during the past year and is creating the mural, called him an inspiration.
Several years later, at age 12, Josh abandoned the piano in vor of a secondhand Squier Stratocaster guitar, a Christmas gift from his ther.
Josh, you have come so r because you are true to yourself. I think the X Factor is yours to win and yours to loose. You are the only one thacolleen labuski The K ctor The Columbus Dispatcht can take this dream away. I know Nichole is your mentor, God knows she does care&8230;but my friend you have to fight till you can&8217;t fight anymore to have the songs that you know will represent your voice the best! Only you know this Josh. Now there has been a song that you have probably been wanting to get out, it&8217;s time my friend! Let it out, let the world here your voice&8230;you have something special! God Bless!
Last nite, were all great performances, but please, we dont need any more ditti girl all-sound-the-same singers. We need some new, fresh, strong to re-rocket diverse music exposure
He has a natural ability to sing and be melodic and sound unique, said Corey Gillen, 30, a drummer for the Josh Krajcik Band. I dont think anythings going to get in the way of that.
Go Josh! Go Columbus! We are screaming for ya!
Man, did he take to it. Within a month, he was playing very proficiently.
A projection-screen television is set up on a heated covered patio, where last Thursday about 60 friends and ns sported Krajcik T-shirts and whooped every time his ce appeared.
His ce could have lit up the world upon opening it, said Ron Krajcik, 58, leader of the praise band at Wooster United Methodist Church and, like his son, a self-taught guitarist.
You and your mily truly deserve to sky rocket.
At 15, Krajcik convinced a Wooster tavern owner that he was 22 and was tapped (and paid) to perform there.
I picked you, Josh, from day one!!
I&8217;ve been on the Josh bandwagon since his first audition. I believe he will win this thing.
The remaining competition is diverse: rapper-singer Chris Rene, 27, a former drug addict; inspirational Virgin Islands vocalist Melanie Amaro, 19; handsome R&B crooner Marcus Canty, 20; and Rachel Crow, a spunky 13-year-old whose heartfelt adoption story has resonated with viewers.
The winner to be determined on Dec. 22 by popular vote via phone calls, texts and tweets will win a $5 million recording contract and star in a Pepsi commercial to air during the Super Bowl.
Josh has so much soul and when he sings I feel it in my bones!!
For a decade, Lisa Pim spent long nights in near-empty Ohio bars, cheering for her sons music and scolding those who dared chatter during a performance.
I for one am grateful to hear that.
Krajcik, an unkempt rocker and native of Wooster, knows that a life-altering victory or a crushing loss ultimately awaits not the first extreme high or low he has experienced.
But the boy played notes, progressions, melodies not the typical noise of most youngsters just learning an instrument.
It wasnt a bad attitude. It was I know what I want to do, and I dont want you to tell me what you think I should do, said pianist Toni Shreve, 53, who taught Krajcik in Wooster. I knew he was going to do something special.
For Krajcik, who tonight will find out whether he is among the final fourX Factorcompetitors, plenty of parallels exist between his newfound exposure and years of toil that have helped make him the shows shaggy-haired dark horse.
Musically inclined as a toddler, Josh began tinkering on the piano at age 3.
Pim blushed as her son mingled with Adam Sandler at a recent red-carpet movie premiere and waved to Queen Latih, who last week pulled over her sport-utility vehicle to commend Krajcik as he walked down Sunset Boulevard.
Josh has incredible sound, the true passion, digging deep to his soul, he has grace, he is the Winner!!
Whatever I do, I do it to my best ability, he said. But I dont know if thered be as much interest had there not been that element of surprise.
Even in recent weeks, asX Factorcontestants have grown increasingly groomed, an ever-scruffy Krajcik was shown backstage wearing an old Cinco T-shirt and New Balance sneakers.
There are no words to describe it, said Pim, 57, of Millersburg, Ohio, speaking from a rented condo in West Hollywood, Calif. Its a combination of every emotion wonderful and awful.
I feel the tears from your mom, I&8217;m a mom, an artist. You give hope for all us artists, music, visual, etc. You represent grace and the passion for all of us!
She watched the struggling Columbus songwriter blossom after hisX Factoraudition a soulful, gravelly rendition ofAt Last spawned almost 4 million YouTube hits and earned the self-described burrito slinger comparisons to overnight British sensation Susan Boyle.
It&8217;s been almost funny having to click &8220;replay&8221; just to hear Josh sing over and over the songs not yet available for download.
colleen labuski The K ctor The Columbus Dispatch,These days, she is front and center in a Los Angeles studio as Josh Krajcik sings each week before millions of viewers onThe X Factor, where he has earned consistent praise from a four-judge panel including Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger and formerAmerican Idolcurmudgeon Simon Cowell.
In his 20s, Krajcik would take day jobs, including assembly-line work at a ctory in Orrville, then sink into depression. He missed his child and his art.
The local bunch grew silent and tense before Krajciks te was learned: He survived to return the next week. Everyone went wild.
With help from his mother, he saved enough money to move to Los Angeles for another go at music. Three months later, his savings ran out.
The prospect of affordable living and a fertile music scene attracted Krajcik to Columbus, where in 2004 he formed the Josh Krajcik Band.
Two years later, his dreams took a detour when he became a ther with his then-girlfriend, Colleen Labuski.
