"I had to start working on my voice," Barber told HOH.

Barber wasn't a stranger to speech therapy. From kindergarten to seventh grade, he struggled to overcome a stutter. When the doctors warned him that after he recovered he might have a stutter. Barber bucked against the diagnosis.

Then, last year, Barber started singing a capella on Charlotte's streets. Every day he would sing for a few hours. After a year, he had saved $23,000, most of which he says went to benefit homeless charities.

"I think that's why American Idol wanted me," he says. "For my story."

He's a soft spoken young man, tall with his long dreds tied up in a t-shirt and hidden under his cap. He tells us how his speaking voice quieted after the shooting, but how his singing voice started to boom.

"Was he a great singer before he was shot?" we ask.

"No," he laughs. "When I got shot."