'The Masked Singer': T-Pain on Emotional Reaction to Winning Season 1 (Exclusive)
T-Pain's journey onThe Masked Singer has come to a close.
The performer took off his Monster mask and was crowned the first-ever winner of the Fox reality show on Wednesday, in a moment that saw both the panel, and T-Pain himself, getting emotional.
"Just to hear all the compliments and to hear everybody praising so much, it was pretty cool to hear that," he said in an interview with ET's Nischelle Turner on Friday. "Don't cry, because once you get going, you are going to get me going! It was always like that, but to see them appreciate so much of what I did, it was it was pretty cool."
Though some fans had T-Pain picked out as the Monster early on, for many, it was hard to recognize his voice without his famous auto-tune. "It was normal to me, because I hear my voice all the time, but when people hear the auto-tune, they automatically go off, 'Well, that cant be his real voice!'" he said. "You know, it's pretty much the same."
T-Pain, who said the secretive show had "extensive security," which required him to walk around "fully covered," including his hands, so his hand tattoos wouldn't be visible, revealed that only his wife, his mom, and a few family friends knew he was on The Masked Singer.
"It was difficult, because they kind of wanted me to be unmasked so they can just show the world, but they [also] wanted me to make it to the end, so everybody was conflicting," he expressed. "I would always get text messages about how good I'm doing, and my mom's always supporting me, and my wife is always right next to me, so she's rooting for me. It helps a lot."
As for that Monster costume everyone loved so much, T-Pain explained that he just wanted an outfit that "didn't have any identity."
"[They] already had the Unicorn, or the Lion, the Bee, the Alien, the Peacock and they didn't have a name for mine at the time, so that's the one I had to pick," he said. "I just had to pick the one that had the least amount of identity and wasn't already a structured thing. I just wanted the chaos of it."
"I love performing. Performing is my favorite part of my own career, so to see the reaction from people, and doing things on stage that you know are are super fun... That's my thing," he added.
T-Pain didn't know who else was behind the costumes. In fact, he didn't even know how many people were competing on the show. "We didn't know the Alien existed until like, week five, when it started narrowing down," he said. "They would film us separately, and we wouldn't know anything."
The entertainer does, however, have a casting suggestion for season two: "I think Ne-Yo would do really good," he suggested, sharing that he would "absolutely" come back as a panelist as well.
For now, however, T-Pain is focusing on his new music, having just released a new album, 1Up, on Wednesday.
"I'm doing a tour starting in March. I was asking my fans on social media the other day, 'Want me to perform another song on tour?' And absolutely, everybody wants that," he said. "So the Monster may make an appearance in some form."
See more on The Masked Singer in the video below.
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