Music is Brooks Rosser’s saving grace.
In a clip from the Monday, March 2 episode of American Idol, the contestant opened up about his journey to music — and how a back injury changed his life’s trajectory.
“I come from a musical family. My dad is a harmonicist and my mother sang her whole life but I just never took it seriously,” Rosser says in a clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE. “Growing up was difficult for me. I had trouble making friends. I was very shy.”
Rosser, 22, says that he started playing soccer at age 6 — and it was his dream to “go pro.” Then, his freshman year of high school, he attempted to kick a ball and he broke his back.
“I went for a free kick and I planted my left foot to kick it and I felt a gear switch in my lower left back. I couldn’t feel my legs. I snapped my back in half and that changed everything,” he says.
He adds, “I was lost for a long time and then I picked up a guitar and I didn’t want to put it down.”
Looking back, Rosser says that he was never one to take “chances and opportunities — but American Idol “holds a future that I want.”
At the end of the clip, a portion of Rosser’s Hollywood Week performance plays — and judge Luke Bryan wonders what the crowd will “think about him.”
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As he’s singing, all three judges — including Carrie Underwood and Lionel Richie — are smiling from ear-to-ear.
For his audition, Rosser sang “Your Place at My Place” by Joshua Sloan.
“Gosh, I just want to hear more,” Bryan, 49, told the contestant. “Man, do you understand why we’re so excited? No matter what you sing it’s going to be beautifully unique.”
“Everybody kinda sounds like somebody else or is emulating someone else,” Underwood added. “You’re a unicorn.”
He then played a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.”
“I have never heard another voice like this, ever,” Richie said. “Congratulations. Major stuff here.”
American Idol airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
