RiverFest headliner Craig Wayne Boyd has been defying the odds all his life. Winning season seven of The Voice mirrored his life in many ways.

Boyd started singing in church when he was 4-years old.

His dad taught him to play rhythm on a mandolin and soon he began taking piano lessons and learning other instruments.

“At 13-years old I began playing bass full-time for my church and at 17 or 18 I became the choir director,” Boyd said.

Right of high school, he worked an assortment of jobs before settling on a sales job. He joined a band playing bass and realized he wanted to do more singing than playing.

“I put together a band of my own and quickly became a big fish in the Dallas/Fort Worth area,” he said. “My dad always said you’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with, musician-wise. I wanted to progress more and out of a bad divorce I moved to Nashville with everything I owned in the back of a pickup.”

Boyd quickly learned the road to Nashville wasn’t paved with gold.

“It was the school of hard knocks,” he said. “You move to Nashville and think you’re a big fish then you realize you’re just a minnow in a huge ocean.”

As things would start happening the rug would get pulled out from under him and Boyd neared the end of his rope.

“Once my son came along I realized, hey it’s not just me I have to worry about surviving, you got another mouth to feed and someone else who is relying on you,” he said.

“It’s not as easy at that point.”

He was ready to quit music when the call came to audition for The Voice.

After getting two judges to turn around during the blind auditions, Boyd was defeated in the battle round.

“The first immediate thought was a question to myself,” he said. “That was, ‘did you do your best’ and I quickly answered that, yes I did. That was the only thing in my control.”

Boyd said that if he had taken another step off the stage he would have crossed a line that would have deactivated the judges buttons and they wouldn’t have been able to save him.

“They tell you that beforehand, so I was trying to walk really slow.”

Boyd was saved by Gwen Stefani and given another chance in the knockout rounds where he was defeated again.

“I didn’t have very long that time, it was just about immediate,” he said. “Blake slammed his button and I was very grateful for that.”

“My experience on the show was very much like the life I had led up to there,” he said. “I’ve learned in life that you focus on what you can control, and the things that are out of your control you just let go. I promise you that life is a lot easier that way.”

Boyd had no control over the weather Saturday, April 18, when heavy rains thinned the crowd during the finale of RiverFest. He didn’t let the weather dampen his experience in the river city though.

“Vicksburg was absolutely wonderful, “ Boyd said. “I got one of the runners to drive me around town and the history of the town is what I enjoyed taking in, and the people were wonderful,” he said.

Boyd had an engagement at the American Country Music Awards Sunday in Dallas, so he grabbed a hotel room in Jackson. He awoke Sunday morning to the message that his flight had been canceled.

“I have to give a shout out to the airport in Jackson, Mississippi,” he said. “Those folks were absolutely amazing and made it happen and I was able to hop on the next flight and make it to Dallas.”

“It was a sold out flight too,” Boyd said. “Most airports don’t do that.”