Tom Sandoval and his band, Tom Sandoval and the Most Extras, are officially getting back on the road for their “East of Highland” tour. The band recently performed The Weeknd’s song ‘Blinding Lights’ during the quarterfinals on “America’s Got Talent,” where they received harsh criticism from judge Simon Cowell.
“Judging this performance, it didn’t sound great, I’m afraid,” Cowell said on the hit NBC competition show. When Sandoval sat down with our entertainment reporter Courtney Tezeno, the band’s frontman shared his initial reaction to the feedback.
“Simon is a very tough critic,” he said. “There were a lot of factors that went wrong that day. A lot of them were my fault. Some of them were out of my control.”
Sandavol, 43, says nerves got the best of him, and he also revealed there was a technical malfunction with his in-ear while singing. The band was eliminated from the show on Aug. 20.
“I was very nervous. It’s the biggest stage I’ve ever been on. You know, there’s a lot of pressure,” he shared. “It was so much going on, lack of sleep, over caffeinating, and which dries you out, and then my inner ear was going out, and it was just the sound was not the same.”
He continued, “We just had a bad performance, and I totally get why Simon would say that it didn’t sound good.”
“But everybody who’s been to our shows knows that is not a good example of how we perform, like we always do very well. It’s such a different environment. It’s so much fun and camaraderie and a party, and it’s not the pressure of America’s Got Talent,” the reality star concluded.
The “Vanderpump Rules” alum and his band kicked off their nationwide tour in Austin, TX, on Sept. 19. Sandoval opened up about his crew’s tight bond and why he initially wanted to be a part of the cover band post-reality TV fame.
“I’ve done original music for years,” he said. “It’s really hard to break into the industryI’ve had bands where I’ve put my blood, sweat, and tears in my heart and soul, and they’ve fizzled out and gone away.”
“At a certain point, I didn’t want to do it anymore, just because of being so busy with Vanderpump Rules and opening the bar,” he shared. “But my buddy Jason [Bader], who I started the band with, he’s like, ‘Yeah, you ever thought about getting back into music?’ and I was like, I don’t think I can do it. And then he’s like, ‘What about a cover band?’ I was like, now that’s something I can do.”
Check out tour stops for Tom Sandoval and the Most Extras above. Fans can grab concert tickets for shows near you