After two major label CDs and an independent release that didn’t go anywhere, Javier Colon was ready to give up on a recording career and teach music. Then his brother talked him into auditioning for “The Voice“. It was a last-ditch effort, but it worked. On Wednesday night, Colon captured the show’s title, as well as its prize pack of $100,000, a recording deal with Universal Republic, new friendships with coaches Adam Levine and Cee Lo Green, and a spot on the summer “Voice” tour that kicks off July 27 in Los Angeles. We caught up with Javier moments after his big win to debrief him on his big night…

Did you get to talk to your wife yet?
Javier: She’s here. She was here. She was around I got to give her a big hug when all was said and done and fortunately I brought my little girls out as well. My oldest whose 3 1/2 said, ‘Daddy we saw you win. We saw you win on TV.’ They were in a little holding area. It was cute.


Watch Javier duet with Stevie Nicks on “Landslide.”

Did you think you might win?
Javier: I never expected to make it to the next round. I never thought I deserved it. I just would go out and do the best I could. I, 100%, thought [Carson] was going to say Dia Frampton and she is most deserving of it. She is amazing. I think any one of us, Vicci or Beverly or Dia, we all are deserving of the title. I think we all are deserving artists in our own right. We all do different things, and I look forward to doing a tour with them, which we’re doing at the end of July.

Where were you at with your career before you auditioned for “The Voice?
Javier: It was over. Basically, before I came out to do this audition, in January I had been rejected from yet another record label that I really thought we were gonna get this one. They ended up passing. I said, ‘Okay that might be the dagger because I’ve got two little girls I have to make sure are taken care of. ‘I can’t just keep living on a dream and expecting that things are going to work out because it’s not just my wife and I anymore. I almost didn’t audition. My brother had to convince me.

What will your debut CD for Universal Republic sound like?
Javier: I think one thing that was consistent in the show was that I tried to pick songs that drew people in. I’m a songwriter and I feel as a songwriter part of our job is to be able to take people on a journey, to be able to move people emotionally. I feel that some of the best songs are songs that tell stories. I think my album is going to have a lot of those elements. There are going to be some acoustic moments, just me and a guitar, intimate, and then I’m sure we’ll have some fun stuff on there as well. But for the most part, I’m going to be coming from a singer-songwriter perspective with a soulful background.

Who will you be writing with?
Javier: Me and Adam and definitely going to get into the studio and do some things. Even Cee-Lo and I talked about doing some stuff as well.

Have you talked to the executives at Universal Republic yet and do you feel they get you?
Javier: I think they do. I think they understand who I am they know the mistakes that were made it he past with my last label [ Capitol Records] who didn’t really get who I was.

What will you do with the $100,000 prize?
Javier: I’m gonna put a dent in my school loans and maybe pay some more off on the house. Then maybe I might take my wife to a spa weekend because she so deserves it after taking care of the kids on and off without me while I was doing this.