Welcome to HickoryRecord.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

HickoryRecord.com - Hickory Daily Record

HomeNewsEntertainmentSportsLifestylesOpinionCommunityWeather Online Tools Jobs | Real Estate | Shopping | Classified

Grand finale: Lenoir teen competes for record deal

Jonathan Cox (left) and Brandon Green of JB Rocket.

WANT TO WATCH?

What: ‘Can You Duet’

When: 9 p.m. tonight

Where: CMT is on cable channel 74 on Charter Cable.

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: August 8, 2009

LENOIR - Lenoir is home to 16,793 people. About 569,891 live in Nashville, Tenn., and Jonathan Cox was 18 years old when he made the leap from here to there to compete on CMT's show "Can You Duet."

He and his partner Brandon Green, 23, formed the duo JB Rocket and together they made it all the way to the final episode scheduled to air tonight at 9 p.m. on CMT.

During the finale they'll compete against Steel Magnolias for the championship and a recording contract with Big Machine Records.

The finale will recap both duets' journey through the entertainment contest and their emotional highs and lows along the way.

"Saturday's show is going to be a whirlwind," Cox said. "It was just phenomenal for us to be there."

The final episode has already been filmed and, although Cox couldn't give any details about which duet won the contest, he did say, "Things are very good right now."

"As soon as the show's over, everything gets kickin' for us," he said. "Things are great. I want to shout it."

He's gotten a lot of hometown support throughout the duration of the show from his tight-knit community. He spent some time over the weekend being spotted in local restaurants and signing autographs for his fans.

Cox said the show only took about four weeks to film to its conclusion with the contestants singing twice a week.

"It was so fast, it was hard to take it all in," Cox said. "I'm very humbled by this experience."

The scope of what they'd accomplished in that short time only started to sink in when JB Rocket gave a post race performance at last weekend's NASCAR Toyota Tundra 200 Truck Series race at Nashville's Superspeedway, Cox said.

"It's a big blessing to be where I am," he said. "It's very surreal."

Cox said JB Rocket has been working on writing songs with some Nashville collaborators in an effort to put together an album sometime soon.

Until then, fans can go to jbrocketmusic.com to check out the music, loot at photo galleries and buy a T-shirt or two.

— Population figures from 2000 Census.