Team Adam’s Tony Lucca recently visited San Diego’s Anthology as part of his “Chapter Two” tour, and sat down with me before showtime to discuss his new deal with Adam Levine’s 222 Records and his plans for the immediate future.

There’s a certain something that sets Tony apart from the legion of singing-competition hopefuls or even the alumni who have been on The Voice, and it’s not his star-studded backstory, although that’s certainly made him wiser to the gains and pitfalls that come with television exposure. It’s that he works hard and handles everything with class. For Tony, it’s not about who he knew, where he placed on The Voice or anything else other than the music. When I arrive at Anthology, he’s in the middle of assembling equipment for that night’s show – and still takes a moment to greet me and double-check that he has the appropriate interview time. He’s firmly down to earth, in addition to being remarkably talented.

The ink has only recently dried on his new record deal, which once again pairs him with his coach – an idea that both of them are enthusiastic about. “Once it was decided that Universal wasn’t going to move forward with some type of project with me and we were in the clear, [Adam] wasted no time. He’s like, ‘We will sign you.’ He was confident enough to go ahead during the blind auditions and shout it out and kind of caught us all off guard,” Tony said with a laugh, explaining how it all came together and what it means for the future. “We’re not going to get anything put together and put out by the end of this year. The idea is to kind of move quickly on it, to make something, whether it’s a single or an EP, for early 2013 opportunities.”

He and his management team at Rock Ridge Music are also moving full speed ahead with their charitable organization, The M.I.L.E. (Music Is Love Exchange), which he mentioned in our previous interview back in July. They’re about “empowering musicians to do charitable things in their community and on the road. M.I.L.E. will provide tour support budgets to artists, work with them to create interest in and visibility for our cause, and to perform for under-served or sick children – giving back to the communities that they live in and tour through.” You can find out more information about The M.I.L.E. and get involved by clicking here.

Right now, Tony is just shy of halfway through the thirty dates on his “Chapter Two” tour, which he describes as “basically a bit of a victory lap from The Voice, to kind of get out and thank fans and introduce new fans to some of the older stuff.” Fittingly, he’s been backed by a number of fellow alumni from season two, including Justin Hopkins on several West Coast dates, Jordis Unga in Minneapolis, and Chris Cauley will join the show in Atlanta.

It’s an enviable roster of talent if you’re a Voice fan, and Tony knows he’s pulled together a strong group to support him. Of Justin, his partner for the show in San Diego, Tony said, “He’s a great, great hang. One of the most enjoyable people I’ve had the pleasure of hanging with in recent years and kind of just the spark plug that we needed” going into the West Coast leg of the tour. He also complimented Gabe Dixon, who played with him on several other dates: “He’s phenomenal and a sweetheart, super-talented, a lot of fun.”

The “Chapter Two” tour balances the songs that television viewers associate Tony with from The Voice with the original material they might not have sought out yet. “We’re incorporating a good deal of the songs from the show and that’s a lot of fun,” Tony explained. “There’s certain songs that we don’t feel compelled to do, [like] ‘Beautiful Day’, though I think we’re going to do it down in Atlanta when Chris joins the show that night. We had Jordis join us in Minneapolis and we did ‘Go Your Own Way’ – that was a lot of fun. But the Britney and the ‘How You Like Me Now’ and ‘Trouble,’ those are easy songs to do.”

Incorporating most of his Voice catalog is a change of pace for Tony, who hasn’t previously made a habit of singing other people’s songs. “I’ve never really been the covers guy, and now I am,” he says with a laugh, but he knows that it’s “just from the nature of the show, for now. I do obviously look forward to a new batch of tunes. We’re actually introducing two new songs [on tour] that I hope will make the record.”

Aside from some time with his family for the holidays, Tony won’t be slowing down through the rest of the year. “We tour into the second week of November [and] I’ve got some more one-off dates through the holidays. If we move really quickly on the recording process I could be out in LA,” he said, adding that any West Coast trip might involve a return to The Voice stage: “I think I’ll be coming out to LA for the finals of Season 3. They’ve got us slated for that.”

While he’s appreciated the experience of The Voice and everything it’s allowed him to do, Tony isn’t relying on that to carry him. Having been in the TV spotlight before, he knows that television fame is temporary and what truly matters is what he does next. “The initial objective [of being on the show] was to hopefully garner some additional exposure, and mission accomplished. The tour’s been really successful. It’s had the desired effect,” he says.

“But moving forward, more importantly, creatively what we tapped into on the show has got me very, very motivated and excited for the next record – to get back into the studio and work with some great people and make a great record. Whatever happens from here on out, it’s all new. It’s new ground, and it’s going to be a larger version of the Tony Lucca brand.”

On stage at Anthology (view photos from the show), Tony quips that what he really wants is a book deal. It gets laughs from the room, but it’s actually not that bad of an idea. His would be a story worth reading: a talented artist, devoted family man, and honest in every circumstance, more musicians should be like Tony Lucca.

Tony Lucca is currently on tour; for future tour dates visit his website (tonylucca.com). You can also follow him on Twitter (@luccadoes).

(c)2012 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Exclusive to Big Red Chairs. No reproduction permitted. All rights reserved.

If you judged Tony Lucca purely on what you saw on The Voice, you didn’t get to see all of him. While his history and interactions with coach Christina Aguilera made the headlines, what that often eclipsed was the fact that he’s a dynamic performer whose work ethic and confidence absolutely earned him the honor of being Team Adam’s finalist.

Regardless of where he started his career or who he knows, the bottom line was could he compete? He answered that question with a resounding yes, whether it was his version of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” that caught the attention of John Cusack, or his turning Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” completely on its head (#8 in my list of top moments from the season), or his oh-so-appropriate and so fantastic rendition of The Heavy’s “How You Like Me Now?” that was practically daring the audience to answer that question.

Yet if he seemed to catch fire near the end of the season, maybe it’s because we weren’t wise to what he was doing. His fellow competitors raved about him all season long. Team Cee Lo’s Tony Vincent told me in March that he “really, really impressed me…His style is very unique and when you see what he does on his original material, his talent is unprecedented. The guy’s authentic, he’s endearing. You care about what he’s singing about.” Justin Hopkins was a strong supporter of Tony’s all the way through the finale, and season one champ Javier Colon said he really thought that Tony would bring home the title – not the first person who’s made that statement. Tony was always a tough competitor – he just raised his game even further when it mattered most.

In essence, Tony is what The Voice is all about: a hardworking artist who has put in the time and effort but is looking for that next step in order to improve their game and/or bring it to the national stage. “I came into this whole experience with the hopes of getting some newfound exposure, making some new fans, and to see how I stacked up against my would-be contemporaries,” he told me. “I’ve always been told that I have a strong voice, and the fact that the show was into exposing established artists that have interesting stories, I thought ‘I’ve got that too.’ It was really, ‘Hey, let’s see how this goes.’ I made a lot of important impressions and met a lot of wonderful people, and had an incredible experience.”

He picked the perfect coach in Adam Levine, who not only helped Tony with his existing skill set, but worked with him to do things that he wouldn’t have considered on his own. “There was plenty for me to learn and there still is plenty for me to learn,” Tony said. “Adam really empowered me and gave me a sense of confidence that only comes from risk and return. [He was] showing me how to take stronger risks with the opportunities that are made available to you. I really got a handle on that this season. I’m able to understand my value a little better than maybe I had before. Maybe feel like I’m bringing a little more swagger.

“I never really saw it coming,” he continued, speaking of his trajectory on the show. Though he’s much more than the constant questions about Christina’s comments toward his performances, he recognizes the benefit those moments brought as well, explaining that if they hadn’t happened, “it wouldn’t have compelled us to move in the direction that we did, and I wouldn’t have tapped into something that excited me tremendously.

“As we got deeper into this thing, we realized it wasn’t so much about vocal prowess as much as it was really capitalizing on the fact that I do have maybe the most experience as a performer. I was never going to outsing Jermaine Paul, or Chris Mann for that matter, but the one thing that Adam and I realized was that maybe no one was ever going to outperform me. Juliet Simms had a few incredibly undeniable performances. Both of us could argue that we can connect with our material in a way that maybe others can’t.”

The turning point in Tony’s tenure was clearly his performance of “Baby One More Time,” which turned the pop song into a rock anthem that had the entire audience cheering when it was over. Once he and his coach saw the reaction to their daring idea, they continued to take calculated risks all the way to the very end.

“As we got closer [to the finale], we saw what people were responding to. After the Britney song and after ‘How You Like Me Now,’ it seemed like people were getting excited about those type of choices and [were] not so impressed with the predictable choices that some people were making,” Tony said. “I felt like everyone [else] was really digging into something you might expect from them. For me, the most unpredictable song was what we went with. America had its say and clearly they’re not as enamored with the drama or the riskiness or the danger element as Adam and I were.”

Yet Tony has no regrets about his Voice experience, and nothing but kind words for his competitors. He’s happy for Jermaine, and he’s not bothered by the reaction to any of his performances, explaining that “We sort of brought it on, knew what we were getting into, and wouldn’t have been able to do it if we didn’t have the patience and the tolerance to deal with the backlash.”

And even though he might not have won the title, he took away something possibly even better than victory. On the final night, he, Jermaine and Chris got to sing with Hall and Oates, who were one of the choices Tony once told me he’d love to perform with. “Hall and Oates was my first concert when I was seven years old,” he said. “I’ve been a lifelong fan of them for almost 30 years now, and to be able to tell those guys that as well, it was pretty cool. It was made cooler by the fact that my folks were there; my folks are big Hall and Oates fans.”

So what comes next? “My hopes are to build on the momentum that we gained from the show, and foster this edgier, more performance-oriented material,” Tony explained. “In the past I think I’ve just kind of stayed safe with the acoustic singer-songwriter thing. I’m really fired up about the sound and the performance aspect of what we achieved on the show, and I personally want to see more of that. Kind of a cross between Adele and the Black Keys – something soulful, but something organic and fun.”

That may also include a future collaboration with his coach. “According to both of us, that’s something we really want to do,” he added. “We had a really good time those last few weeks. I think we both really are inspired by each other in a very legitimate way.” Tony points to their finale duet as an example of that inspiration: “We continued to teeter out on a limb together – doing something very naked and honest and refreshing for the sake of the show. That he and I could just sit there with an acoustic guitar and really connect with an amazing song was really powerful.”

For this writer, it’s easy to see why Adam connected with Tony and believed they could win it all together. Adam is one of music’s true good guys, who knows what it really means to work for your success, and so is Tony. Here’s an example: when I arrived to cover the Universal CityWalk concert that happened before the finale, even though he was getting ready for a satellite media tour and I was at least 30 feet away from him, Tony noticed I’d shown up and acknowledged me. And while he didn’t have time to chat that day, he still stopped to say hello and gave me a hug. That’s a gentleman, as well as an outstanding artist. It’s unfortunate that his heart and his talent got a little bit lost in, or at least encumbered by, the things that happened along the way.

With everything said and done, Tony has some very smart words when it comes to looking toward his future, one that’s not obfuscated by his past or what someone else thinks. Now, he told me, “I get to move on, and do my thing, and let the music speak for itself.”

For more on The Voice, you can follow my Voice-exclusive Twitter at @bigredchairs.

(c)2012 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Originally written for BuddyTV and appears here for purpose of archival. No reproduction permitted. All rights reserved.