“Before I left home, I had already made up in my mind, if Reba McEntire turns her chair, I am going to say Reba,” reveals Asher HaVon, who won Season 25 of “The Voice” on Tuesday night. The 31-year-old from Selma, Alabama defeated Josh Sanders, Bryan Olesen, Nathan Chester and Karen Waldrup in the finale, securing Reba her first victory as a coach. Watch Asher’s video interview with Gold Derby above. 

Asher says working with Reba was “an out of body experience.” He explains, “I don’t think I’ve ever received so much encouragement and so much love and so much wisdom about this industry in my life. She literally saw me where I was, took me in, molded me and then sent me right back out. I was able to do exactly what I needed to do.”

After host Carson Daly announced Asher as the winner, Reba rushed the stage to join him. “That is what really moved me so emotionally,” Asher recalls. “I knew that she became a second mother to me. It was in that moment that I really knew that what I was feeling all along was so authentic. When she walked up and hugged me, I could feel her heart in her hug. It meant everything to me.”

The powerhouse vocalist didn’t hold back in his song choices throughout the season. He reveals his three biggest musical influences are Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and Toni Braxton. “I love Whitney Houston so much. I’ve studied her mannerisms, the way she commands a stage, the way she sings and the way she soars. I love how Celine Dion can come under a note and just flip it, and I love the deepness and richness in Toni and so I just put them all in my throat and that’s what I try to give.”

It was never a foregone conclusion that a man as bold and flamboyant as Asher on stage could win over America’s vote. “I felt like I was truly the vessel that was used for the greater good,” he explains. “What has always separated me was my voice. I’ve always looked like this. I’ve always shown up and had people say, ‘Wait a minute, what is happening here?’ But the moment I would sing people would be mesmerized by the gift. Reba always said, ‘God gave you something special.’ I believe he really did and I believe seeing me is a representation that God can use whoever he wants to. A man in a wig. A man with a smokey eye. A man with a glittery shirt on.”