John Arthur Greene Garners Keith Urban’s Swing Vote During ‘American Idol’ Audition

Last night, American Idol aired another round of auditions, this time from the “City of Love,” Philadelphia, PA.

In the final audition of the night, Broadway actor John Arthur Greene shared the emotional story behind his drive to perform.

“My brother passed away when I was 8 and music has been a way to keep his memory alive and really just deal with that. My brother and I were completely inseparable when we were growing up. It was me and him. We would always play cops and robbers and army and things like that,” he explained.

“We were playing one night on my parent’s wedding anniversary and I was hiding. It was my chance to hide. We were playing cops and robbers. Growing up on the farm, we always handled the guns in the house,” Greene continued. “We were always extremely safe, nothing was ever loaded and it just so happened that that night, one of them was loaded. I picked up a gun and I called him into the room and it went off. I held my brother and watched him die. I knew it, I knew it when I had him in my arms. I knew he was gone and I knew it was my fault.”

Since his death, Greene has turned to music to cope and keep his brother close to his heart. “I believe my brother’s going to be with me when I sing today, but am I doing this for him? No. I’m doing this for me. But what comes with me is him.”

Following his performance of Keith Urban’s “Somebody Like You,” the ‘Idol’ judges weren’t quite sure to think of his vocals.

Harry Connick, Jr. wasn’t entirely impressed with the performance. “For me, I think you have a very strong voice, but I’m just thinking, you know, what else is there?”

For Jennifer Lopez, Greene was good, but possibly not good enough. “I’m not sure that you’re going to be able to hang at a certain point with some of the singers but I do feel like you have something.”

Also on the fence was Urban, who wanted to see what else the North Carolina native could do. “I get the feeling that right now, especially doing Broadway, you’re in a particular way of performing because you have to be,” Urban said. “I have the feeling that you’ve got other sides to you.”

When it came down to the vote, Connick said no, while Lopez and Urban gave him a second chance in Hollywood Week.

“I’m curious to know what else you can do. So I’m going to say yes,” Urban said before awarding him a golden ticket.

Greene is currently cast in Matilda The Musical on Broadway. Previous performance credits include 2014’s Peter Pan Live!