 Eastern Kentucky routes run deep in American adult top five contestant, Zachariah Smith. I mean, Kentucky's always been a big part of my life, especially Johnson County. You know, all of my family was born and raised there until they had moved to Indiana due to work. But, you know, my pap always told me somewhere down along the line that I was related to Loretta Lynn, which used to be Loretta Webb before she had married Smith was at work when he decided to take the chance and audition for the competition over zoom. I mean, I was working in the burger joint. I took 15 minutes out of my lunch break to go and audition. And, you know, it has completely changed my life for the better. You know, I kind of feel frozen sometimes because I'm like, is this really real? You know, because it's a lot to take in. Smith's story began when his mother was told she had miscarried during her pregnancy. However, her friend recommended her to a specialist. Probably two weeks later, he done an ultrasound and there was a heartbeat. So he's a miracle. That's a blessing from the Lord because those things don't just happen every day. And so I know that God has a plan for him and Zach's always been one of these kids that just captures the hearts. His mother has always seen the spark of lot within him. And this lot has shown broadly each week on the American Idol stage as he impresses the judges and his fans with his incredible voice, stage presence and charisma. I actually discovered he knew how to sing when he was watching one of Loretta Lund Smith films, Coal Miner's daughter. She got up there and it was her first time singing in a bar. So that was that was her first initial, you know, debut. And so I, you know, heard that song and I just started singing along to it. And ever since then, we've watched American Idol and he'd sat in the living room and just his eyes would get so big and he'd be like, mom, I can't wait to be on American Idol. That's my dream someday. So here we are. He's top five. Cancer. It's a very scary word. But an outstanding treatment facility was here at home. I was led to the Lawson Cancer Center. As a nurse practitioner at the Lawson Cancer Center, we are champions for our patients. I am so happy for Robert. The treatment worked. Loosely related to Loretta Lund Smith inherited his musical talents from the same heels that have produced other great musicians such as Chris Stapleton. And now his journey on American Idol has taken him to the top five with a chance to make it to the final three this Sunday. That's as hard. I've been with him for the past two weeks, you know, and when he comes in, he's just ready to collapse. And there is there are days that I worked 12 hours. I mean, I went over to the studio today and just, you know, recorded my new single American Grace. And yeah, I mean, when you talk about behind the scenes of American Idol, there's a lot that a lot of people don't see. You know, me and my wife spend each week trying to gain new voters. I try to reply to all my comments and, you know, I try to upload more than, you know, three times a day sometimes, you know, on the social media. Trying to keep up with the fans and keep the algorithm going. As the competition heats up, Zachariah is calling on all of his fans and the people of Eastern Kentucky to support him by voting for up to 30 times. So the first way you can do it the easiest way, download the American Idol app. Download the app, sign into an ABC account and you can vote for me 10 total times. The second easiest way to do it is going to the website American Idol dot com slash vote signed into your ABC account just like the app and you can vote a total of 10 times there. And then this is the confusing part. This is where people get a little confused, but it is an easy method to vote. The old fashioned way my number is 11 and you text 11 to 21523. Once you do that, you keep typing in 11 and sending it until you've reached the maximum amount of votes. In total, if you can do all three of those, then you've got 30 votes in total and that greatly helps me. It helps my family and you know, I just hope to pay it forward someday. So I'll take any votes and any support that I can get and I'll be grateful. Reporting from Mountain Top News, I'm Ethan Miller.