The Voice Tony Lucca: It was cool to reconnect with Christina Aguilera

The Voice contestant Tony Lucca has said that he was "flattered" by Christina Aguilera's reaction to him on this week's second season premiere.

Lucca appeared alongside Aguilera on The Mickey Mouse Club back when they were children, and although the singer initially didn't recognise her former co-star during his blind audition on Sunday (February 5), when it dawned on her who he was she left the audition room to find him backstage for a catch-up.

Speaking to reporters on a conference call this week, he said: "The way she came in and went down memory lane was extremely flattering to say the least, and really cool because it certainly wasn't solicited or prodded out of her. Her sentiments were genuine and honest and it was legitimately cool to reconnect."

> Christina Aguilera tells Tony Lucca: 'Britney had a crush on you'

Lucca added: "Everything will be a little bizarre in front of a camera - let alone six or seven! - but I couldn't be happier with the way it went down and I'm grateful for her being so gracious and flattering."

As for Aguilera's revelation that another former co-star, Britney Spears, had a crush on Lucca back in the day, he said that his wife had "got a kick" out of that news, but pointed out he was 17 when he met an 11-year-old Spears on The Mickey Mouse Cl! ub so he saw her as a "little sister".

"We were the older kids so all of the younger kids like Justin [Timberlake], Britney, Christina, Ryan Gosling would play our little siblings in skits," he said.

"We didn't spend as much time together as you might think. They looked up to us and found out where we did our shopping and would go out and buy similar clothes as us. I was dating Keri Russell at the time - she was also on the show - and I know Britney and Christina thought the world of her and looked up to her."

> Read Digital Spy's full The Voice headlines

Lucca explained that after Mickey Mouse Club he moved to Los Angeles where he began landing TV and film roles, but realised that if he wanted to achieve his music dreams he'd have to put them first.

"Music has always been my first love so I wanted to get back to that and do something that was a little more immediately gratifying," he said.

Lucca said that he chose to audition for The Voice over other singing competitions because it seemed a "comfortable" fit for him, given his background.

"I'd say basically a lot of us - established, semi-professional artists - have been standing by sort of on the sidelines watching these reality show singing contestants come and go, and watching them pluck kids out of obscurity and turning them into overnight sensations when we've been singing in the ditches, so to speak.

"Then The Voice came along and you see that's what they are looking for, it's part of the formula. I! think t hat appealed to a lot of us. I thought I could sit comfortably in this group of people."

> Tony Lucca: 'I'm so excited to work with Adam Levine' - video

Lucca said that his first choice of mentor was Adam Levine - who he picked - but he had also been interested in working with Blake Shelton: "He comes from the country side of the radio dial and the craft of songwriting is at the core of that genre, so I thought it might have been cool to forge a tie with him."

As for who he hopes to work with in his future career, he said: "I'd love to do something with Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic. He has a midas touch, writing great songs and knowing how to hit it out of the park on the radio.

"I'd love to sing with Chris Cornell too, a bit on the edgier side of the dial, but I've always admired his voice."

The Voice airs Mondays at 8/7c on NBC

Watch Tony Lucca talking about The Voice below: