Singer/songwriter Jacob Whitesides is best known for his earnest, melodic pop and online cover songs. Born in Knoxville in 1997, Whitesides first became interested in music while attending a bluegrass festival in 2008. By his teens, Whitesides was playing shows around Knoxville and had already garnered a huge online following for his YouTube cover songs. In 2012, he gained even more national attention after making it through the first cut on the second season of Fox's The X Factor. In 2014, Whitesides released his official debut EP, 3 AM: The EP, which featured cover songs by John Legend, Plain White T's, John Mayer, and others. A year later, he delivered his sophomore EP and first album of all-original material, A Piece of Me. ~ Matt Collar