In 2008, after years of shunning his friends and families repeated cries for him to follow his gift of singing, JJ Worthen was more certain than ever that a career in oil (in his hometown of Houston, TX) was his safest bet in life. Not seeing his own truly unique skills and still blowing off peoples compliments, JJ set out on interviews to work in computers in the local oil industry, not knowing music would keep pulling him back in.

From 2002 to 2006 JJ casually followed his gift and studied opera at Houston Baptist University. By the time he had finished he held a Bachelor of Music with an emphasis in opera, and composition. During his tenure at HBU, he studied the voice and a variety of instruments, becoming what most would consider “masterful” in voice, piano and guitar. All of this was just to appease his self-proclaimed “hobby” of loving music.

It was during his time in college that JJ was dragged against his will by his sister to try out for a music competition television show called “Gimme The Mic!” Dead set against being involved with anything of the sort, and certain he had nothing to offer, JJ begrudgingly signed up and ended up competing against 2,000 Houstonians for a recording deal with local Sugar Hill Records. Well he was wrong. JJ won by a landslide with a perfect score from all judges, and that’s when it clicked; he might actually have some sort of shot at singing for a living. Since then it’s all he’s done.

Now more driven than ever, JJ started playing all over Texas at both venues and churches – anywhere that would listen. In mid 2010 toured the Middle East and North Africa representing the United States as a diplomat. For five weeks he journeyed with artist Kareem Salama through Egypt, Morocco, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Israel, Palestine and Jordan. While in the Middle East they played concerts, spoke at schools, did radio interviews and performances, played on TV shows, and talked with newspapers and magazines in each country. The tour was highly publicized and was featured on CNN and ABC World news.

In late 2010 producer Jim Roach was sent JJ’s music by an old friend he hadn’t seen in years. The second Jim heard his voice, he grabbed the phone. “I literally couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was like Freddie Mercury had come back in a kid’s body and was writing these massive, perfectly constructed songs. It’s rare to find someone with that ‘one-of-a-kind’ voice that can also write great songs. Then I saw his guitar playing and piano playing and I was 100% sold.”

In early 2011 JJ signed to Jim’s label Red Parade Music, changed the project name to Kingvolt and moved to Los Angeles. The two are currently developing JJ’s music and the Kingvolt sound. They recently finished his debut EP in October 2011 which will be released at the beginning of 2012.