Tulsa Musician Stuns National Competition With Epic Def Leppard Cover

A Tulsa musician just won a national competition by producing a cover song for Def Leppard.

Cade Roberts joined News On 6 to talk about the competition and his plans for the future.

Finding the Competition

Roberts explains how he discovered the contest through the comments on his YouTube video.

"Several months ago, I actually did a cover of a different Def Leppard song on YouTube," Roberts said. "A couple of months after that, somebody commented on that video and was like, 'Hey, you got to check out this contest with Sweetwater. They're doing with Def Leppard, looking for a song off a different album, Pyromania.'"

The contest, organized by Tulsa music retailer Sweetwater, required participants from around the world to cover a song from Def Leppard's album Pyromania.

"They had people from all over the world, and basically they had a team at Sweetwater, and then they had the band listening to all the videos and kind of selected their favorites until they landed on mine, I guess," Roberts said.

The Winning Moment

Roberts said that the organizers had some fun with him when he found out that he won.

"The guys from Sweetwater were like, 'Hey, Cade, we're just calling to check in on those pics you ordered.' So like, I thought I had this phone call just checking on my order. Like, my heart sank for a moment. I kind of got my hopes up, and immediately, he's like, 'I'm just kidding. Congratulations, you're the grand prize winner,;" Roberts said.

Roberts also highlighted his collaboration with singer Chris Payne, a friend from the UK.

"Chris Payne, he's a singer out of, actually, the United Kingdom. OK, we've been friends for several years," Roberts said. "I posted a video about five years ago of one of my songs that he really liked, and they came across his Facebook feed somehow, and he reached out. We have kind of been like friends ever since. But this is since, but this is actually the first project we've properly worked on together, so it's, I'm hoping it's a catalyst for more, and we've already kind of been discussing some new song ideas."

Roberts he looking forward to producing music and potentially collaborating further with Chris Payne.