Watch for Greenville singer Benton Blount on ‘America’s Got Talent’ tonight

When Greenville singer Benton Blount got the chance to audition for "America's Got Talent" on national TV, he chose a song with happy childhood memories.

Blount belted out Dobie Gray's 1970s hit "Drift Away," and it must have been the right choice. He earned a standing ovation from the audience and positive feedback from all four judges.

Blount advances to the Judges' Cut Rounds that continue through the end of July, in which the remaining contestants will be whittled down until there's a champion, who will win $1 million. Blount said he will be seen next on Tuesday’s episode.

Producers gave the contestants a lot of freedom to choose their music, Blount said. "Drift Away" reminded him of Saturday mornings as a kid in Valdese, North Carolina, when his mom listen to the radio while she cleaned house.

"That would be a song that would come on the radio, almost any channel you'd turn it to, whether it was country or pop or whatever," Blount said Wednesday. "That song kind of, to me, blurred the lines of genres in music, which is what I've wanted to (do). I just picked a song that made me feel good and that I have really good memories of."

His initial audition, which was taped several months ago in New Jersey, was a big step for Blount, who moved to Greenville six years ago. And so far, the entire experience has been "amazing," he said.

The competition is "definitely one of the biggest opportunities of my career so far," Blount said. "I'm 36 now; I was 35 when I auditioned. And so I'm getting a little older, and I don't feel like I'm that old, but ... the window for an entertainer is kind of smaller at this point. So an opportunity like this is literally the chance that I almost thought I would never get, to really take my career to another level, to support my family and to support my dream of making music."

Blount spent a few years working on his musical career in Nashville before moving to Greenville six years ago. He came to town to record at Edwin McCain's studio, and decided to sell his house in Nashville and relocate to the Upstate.

"I was here for maybe three days and just literally fell in love with the people and the city and the atmosphere," he said. "It made me feel more artistic. I felt like I was growing as a musician."

While Blount's music is often classified as country, he doesn't want to limit himself to a particular genre.

"I'm a singer-songwriter and a performer, but you never know what kind of music you're gonna get when you come to a show."

And while Blount has released some of his songs online and has an album that he sells at his live shows, he's looking forward to putting out new music when his "America's Got Talent" stint is finished.

He looks at it as "starting with a clean slate, and really making a run at becoming the performer that I am on the show. And then, sometime after the show's over, I'll definitely be putting out new music," he said. "It's not like I'm finding myself again, but I'm allowing people to find me as well before I start putting out new material."

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 3:39 PM.