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"The Voice contestants Patrick Thomas and Jeff Jenkins have dismissed the suggestion of any extra competition between them stemming from their similar country styles. The singers both secured places in the battle rounds of the NBC competition during last week&amp;#039;s blind audition phase. Thomas booked a spot on Blake Shelton&amp;#039;s team with his rendition of &amp;#039;Live Like You Were Dying&amp;#039;, while Jenkins joined Adam Levine&amp;#039;s group after his performance of &amp;#039;Bless The Broken Road&amp;#039; last week.  However, during a recent conference call with reporters, the singers played down the suggestion that there could be extra competition between them because they are both country artists. &amp;quot;I really don&amp;#039;t think so,&amp;quot; said Jenkins. &amp;quot;I think we&amp;#039;re both country singers but we are different singers, whether or not we will in the end be competing for ratings on the radio. If it is a competition, it&amp;#039;s a friendly competition. I think we&amp;#039;re different enough that people like us for our own thing instead of wanting that competition between us.&amp;quot; Thomas agreed, saying that although the show is &amp;quot;in essence&amp;quot; a competition between all of the performers, they are rooting for each other to succeed. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m cheering Jeff on when he is at number 30 on the country charts and I&amp;#039;m happy with my number 50,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m not bitter about any of that because Jeff is my good friend. I respect his talent... Javier [Colon], for example, when his single went to 18 on the overall chart, I can speak for everyone when I say we are all so happy for him. We&amp;#039;re so happy to be where we are right now and to share this together.&amp;quot; Jenkins, who flew to Seattle to audition for The Voice by himself after learning about the show from school friends in Nashville, was the first contestant to impress all four celebrity mentors with his performance.  Discussing his reasons for choosing Levine, he told reporters: &amp;quot;My mom always taught me to follow my gut. When listening to the coaches talk to me about why I should be on their team he really stood out.   &amp;quot;He said he could take me to that next level and that&amp;#039;s what The Voice is about,&amp;quot; he continued.  &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s an awesome coach and really knows exactly what he is talking about. He pinpoints your problem areas and knows how to tell you how to fix those. He is really cool and adds a new side to what I know about the music.&amp;quot; As for what sort of music he would like to release, he said: &amp;quot;I definitely want to remain in my roots of country music but I&amp;#039;ve always sang more of a Rascal Flatts pop-country crossover. I think that Adam can help me along with that side of the music industry.&amp;quot; Thomas agreed that he is likely to stay true to his country roots, but admitted that the genre is &amp;quot;kind of a recent thing&amp;quot; for him.  &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#039;t start singing country until I was about 16,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;In middle school I was listening to Josh Groban, and when I was singing at a younger age, it was Broadway artists, Bing Crosby... I had a wide array of influences. My parents were both Broadway performers so I had that background always, but country was the most commercial for me and I learned to love it. &amp;quot;My dad suggested country and at first I hated it, but I started watching CMT television every morning and really fell in love with Lonestar, Clay Walker, Blake Shelton... It became the only thing I listened to on the radio. I still have a lot of different genres I love, but country is definitely how I identify myself.&amp;quot; The Voice continues this Tuesday at 10/9c on NBC. Watch Patrick and Jeff&amp;#039;s auditions below:   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-voice/news/a318196/the-voice-jeff-jenkins-patrick-thomas-talk-competition/>