‘The Masked Singer’s’ Bronson Arroyo on Sherlock Hound elimination: ‘I can definitely take a loss with the best of them’
Season 12 of “The Masked Singer” continued Wednesday night on FOX, with the Group C final in “Peanuts Night.” Following the studio audience vote, Royal Knight became the first singer eliminated, followed by Sherlock Hound, who lost a Battle Royale to Strawberry Shortcake. The doggy detective became the 10th eliminated singer of the season, and was revealed to be 2004 World Series champ Bronson Arroyo. Watch our video interview above.
While waiting for host Nick Cannon to read the results, the former pitcher admits, “I was definitely nervous. Anytime you get in a position where you’re fighting for something, or just competing, it doesn’t matter if it’s playing jacks as a kid or ping-pong, you get a little competitive fire. I can definitely take a loss with the best of them, but you get nervous and you want to move on to the next round and do your best.”
Panelists Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Ken Jeong, and Rita Ora thought Arroyo was a professional rockstar throughout most of his time on the show. Robin eventually figured out Sherlock Hound’s true identity just before the mask came off. The athlete-turned-musician says, “I grew up on the ’90s alternative stuff. I was in high school when Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam all hit.” He laughed off being compared to Eddie Vedder, noting, “I’m about a foot-and-a-half taller, but I’ll take the compliment.”
Arroyo now plays music professionally and says Pearl Jam’s album “Ten” heavily influenced him. “There was probably the better part of 22 years of me playing baseball, if I was in the weight room or having to squat heavy, I was listening to that ‘Ten’ record. There was so much angst and energy inside of those songs. Even to this day, playing in a cover band around Cincinnati, a lot of times I’m playing those songs. It’s just a release to be able to sing at the top of your lungs like that.”
The former athlete has a new album out called “Life Lessons,” and says, “It was a slow process for me. I picked up the guitar in the minor leagues. I was 22-years-old, I had never played an instrument before. It slowly went from playing around a fire to open mic night and making a cover album in 2005 and slowly getting on stages. It’s been a slow maturation over 20 years of getting up on stage and peeling back the layers of getting more comfortable with stage performance, playing an instrument, and keeping your voice in shape. Now, it feels like if I didn’t have that in my life it would be a little tough.”
Arroyo reminisces, “Winning the World Series in 2004 was so remarkable. If there’s anything about that I could change, I wish I would have been a little bit older, to kind of really feel more established at the Major League level before that happened. Then I got to have nine years in Cincinnati, where I felt like I was where I was supposed to be. I felt like I was leading that team and raising the young guys.”
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