‘The Voice’ finalist Jaelen Johnston reacts to forgetting song lyrics

For Jaelen Johnston, it’s easy to name the worst thing about being on The Voice.

“I think the worst thing is when you forget lyrics on stage,” he told Entertainment Weekly after Monday’s live finals, when he was asked about the best and worst parts of the show. “It really is the worst side of it, to be honest.”

Johnston, who was the lone contestant rookie coach Kelsea Ballerini brought to the final five, had a short memory lapse during his performance of — ironically — “What Was I Thinkin'” by Dierks Bentley.

He was able to laugh about it just moments after the show, which also featured contestants representing the teams of coaches Adam Levine, John Legend, and Michael Bublé — for a total of five finalists — in their final appeals to the voting public.

The truth about what was going through his mind at the moment when he hummed for a beat: “What’s the next line?”

The best part was just as easy for him to name: “Making connections and friends, and it’s been amazing. Everybody out here deserves to be here. They’re phenomenal, phenomenal artists, even better people.”

Each of the five left standing sang one ballad and one up-tempo song on The Voice stage, which meant an evening of songs as varied as Lucia Flores-Wiseman of Team Adam’s “Wildflower” by Billie Eilish to Adam David of Team Bublé singing “You Are So Beautiful” by Billy Preston, and Bublé’s other artist, Jadyn Cree, performing “Come On Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners.

Renzo, of Team Legend, delivered a rousing take on Lenny Kravitz’s “Fly Away.”

“There’s nothing better than when John tells me to ‘make it Renzo,'” the soulful rocker said. “Do that Renzo thing you do and basically trust yourself. It all boils down to that: Trust your choices, trust your style, and your genre. Trust your heart and your soul. There’s a lot of that kind of coaching from John.”

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He appreciated how the show didn’t try to box him into one particular category, like “R&B singer.”

Flores-Wiseman said something similar about her time with Maroon 5 frontman Levine.

“I think the thing that’s going to stick with me forever from Adam is that I’m enough, that I don’t need to be anything more or less, that being Lucia is all I need to do. So just being authentic,” she said. “He told me that in this industry, the thing that’s most important is to stay connected with your audience. It’s the best music you can make, it’s the best you can give to other people, and it’s the best for yourself, your soul, so I would say that’s something that’s stuck with me for the past few months.”

The NBC series gave David the confidence to sing one of his songs without his glasses.

“I haven’t done that all season, and that’s a big deal for me,” David said. “I’m forever changed [by The Voice]. I think something that’s a byproduct of just working with Michael is seeing that somebody like him Is human. So the whole ‘be yourself,’ the whole ‘trust your instincts, trust yourself, believe in yourself.’ I mean, it sounds cliche, but it’s hard out here, man. And to have somebody like Michael Bublé say those things to you, tell you that you’re worthy, tell you that you sound good, and the things that you’re doing, that you have good musical instincts and stuff. Half of the stuff that we do comes from, it stems from how much we believe in it.”

Cree, who plays in an ’80s cover band, lamented that the show was coming to an end.

“The fact that I have to go back to normal life in a couple of days is kind of sad. I want to still be doing this,” Cree said. “I’m probably never going to be able to get this kind of production and stuff again. And so I am just performing on that stage. Insane. Seeing celebrities every week is insane. So, yeah, just that ending is probably the worst.”

But first, The Voice will name the winner of the competition, as voted on by viewers, during a star-studded, live show Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Votes will be accepted until 7 a.m. ET at nbc.com.