'The Voice' marks return to music for Ormond Beach's Kaleb Lee

Happiness for Kaleb Lee comes from his wife, three kids and life in Ormond Beach.

"I’ve got a great family and a great job and had kind of put music aside and I was happy," the 32-year-old said. "I’m happy and content. I’ve never really wanted nothing more than what I’ve got today."

While Lee once chased a music career in Nashville, he now works as president of Markentum, a Daytona Beach internet marketing company. Music is making a comeback in his life after NBC's "The Voice" reached out to him based on a video of him online.

Still, his current happiness inspired the song he picked to make it through his audition on the show's 14th season: Kenny Chesney's 2007 "Never Wanted Nothing More."

“For me, ‘The Voice’ today is kind of like a cherry on top of a really good sundae already," Lee said. "I wanted people to know that about me."

The show's battle rounds begin Monday — with episodes airing at 8 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays. Contestants will sing the same song on stage with another member of their team. Their coach then has to decide which of the two artists can continue to compete while the person that isn't selected can be picked up by one of the other coaches.

Lee — whose last name is Scharmahorn but who uses his middle name, Lee, as a stage name — got a guitar when he was 8 and also sang in school talent shows growing up.

"I had been begging for a while to play," he said.

Originally from Benton, Kentucky, Lee moved to Ormond Beach in 2011. He had been traveling into Nashville from Kentucky to pursue a music career, but a potential record deal didn't work out.

"I wasn't saying 'no' and running away from the music side because I got a no," he said. "I was running toward my family."

His family, though, helped provide a push back into music: "My wife has been trying to get me to audition for 'The Voice' for the last few years," Lee said.

After auditioning with the show's coaches turned around and unable to see him, Lee had Blake Shelton and Kelly Clarkson trying to get him to select their teams.

Shelton, who has coached six of the competition's champions, said on the show that Lee's voice "could stand out on country radio because it's so gravelly, a little bit bluesy sounding."

Clarkson, new to the show, sang from her 2010 duet with Jason Aldean, "Don't You Wanna Stay" to try to get Lee to pick her team.

"I'm just saying, it was good enough for Jason Aldean," she said.

Lee ultimately picked Shelton, saying that his kids — all between the ages of 4 and 8 — were fans of him.

"My gut was to pick Blake as well," he said. "Being a country artist and his status in the country world, his ability to really coach well obviously on the show, it just seemed like the best fit."

As for what he gets from the experience, Lee sees the show as a return to his musical passion.

"First and foremost, it's really helping me re-establish what I had kind of put away for so long," he said.

'The Voice'

WHEN: 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday

NETWORK: NBC