The late Tom Petty sang about the waiting being the hardest part. He wasn’t kidding. Just ask Boothbay Harbor’s Corey “Bo Bo” Tibbetts, one of the thousands auditioning at “The Voice” afternoon open call Jan. 18.

“By the time I went in for my audition there were 2,000 there. Probably 4,000 all together including the morning session. I wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t think I could hold my own,” said Tibbetts.

He was scheduled for the 2 p.m. session. The intensity of the tension among the auditioners was palpable.

“Some were singing, others were writing down the lyrics to their songs to help with memorization,” he recalled. “When you’re actually there, the gravity of it ... as it draws closer ... it gets intense.”

Groups of 10 went into the audition room together. When Tibbetts’ group was seated, the show’s representative informed them they were to sing 30-40 seconds of one of the two songs they were to have prepared, and to make it the best 30-40 seconds they could. Tibbetts went into panic mode. He hadn’t prepared for this scenario. It hadn’t been on the show’s website.

“I knew where I wanted to end up … but how could I get there? I was still working it out in my head when my name was called … and I had nothing,” he said,  starting to laugh. “I went completely blank. (The rep) said, ‘Whenever you’re ready son. Twice. The second time snapped me out of it. But I refused to go without doing anything.”

Tibbetts experienced another audition first that day: “I got a rush that went from the top of my head to my toes and back up to my gut. It was like every fiber of my being was saying ‘You’re gonna show him why you’re here.’ And what came out of me was magical … nothing I’ve done before. He let me sing the whole song. When I finished, he looked at me as if to say, ‘What did you just do?’

“Do I feel like I have unfinished business? Absolutely. If I had done my best and they said no, I’d be able to walk away. There’s another time coming. I don’t know when. But one more time. At the very least, for my own personal redemption. I need to deliver to them the best I am.” 

While in Nashville he met up with some friends including longtime friend and bass player Jack Hartford, Barbara Rumsey’s son who’s been down there for 20 years or so. The night after the audition, Hartford was playing at Tootsie’s. The place was packed. After a few hours, Hartford called Tibbetts up to the stage. The band started playing “Johnny B. Good” and Tibbetts started singing.

“We rocked it. The place exploded. People asked if I was going back up,” he said. “There was a little redemption in that! Getting immediate feedback from the crowd … I love it.”

He also met up with friends Debbie Gordon and Glenn Ewing, longtime summer residents in Boothbay; spent some time at B.B. King’s club, visited the Parthenon, and tried to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame, but the entrance eluded him.

“It was an amazing experience and I don’t regret any of it. The experience humbled me a bit. I make no excuses. It needed to happen to me. I’ve been to a good 100 auditions in my life. I’m confident in what I do. But, sometimes, I can be over-confident.”

The Nashville experience also affected him in a spiritual way. Being in a place where Broadway is 30-40 music venues, each one with multiple floors, and a bar and a band on every one, filled and fed his singer’s soul. And physically, enduring the hours standing in the audition line, walking around Nashville and the airports, as he noted, was not easy for a big guy like him.

Boothbay family and friends followed Tibbetts on this adventure through his Facebook page, which made everyone feel like they were there with him.

As a kid, he was taught that when you fall off a horse, you don’t wallow in it, you get back up. So, the weekend after he returned home, he drove to Lewiston to audition for “Maine’s Got Talent.”

And for one split second … “I started getting the same feeling – like I was about to freeze and I said no-no-no (insert hearty laughter). I belted out a really good song. The same song (he won’t reveal the name of). It was kinda funny, too. They asked about my background and I told them I had just auditioned for ‘The Voice.’ They asked how did that go? And I said … ‘Well, I’m here!’” (Insert that hearty laughter of his.)

In early February, the “Maine’s Got Talent” reps will be calling the 10 people for the next show. Stay tuned. Tibbetts is.

“This community has been phenomenal. I really thank everyone that has contributed and supported me; everyone in the community and outside the community. I thank them all … But, next time, I’ll be in touch (with The Boothbay Register) after it’s over!” (More laughter.)