Season 12 of “The Masked Singer” continued Wednesday night on FOX with “Quarter Finals.” Following the studio audience vote that sent Goo and Strawberry Shortcake into a fierce Smackdown, Strawberry Shortcake emerged victorious leaving Goo to be unmasked. The slimy singer became the 11th eliminated singer of the season, and was revealed to be Los Angeles Rams defensive end Kobie Turner. Watch our video interview above.
“I had so much fun,” he tells Gold Derby. “Being able to be up under the Goo mask was such a great time. To be able to be my silly self, break out all the dance moves, and just be able to carry around that heavy costume. When it came to the singing part, it definitely presented some challenges breath-wise, but to be able to lunk around in that big costume was so much fun.”
Since his unmasking, Kobie says he’s only heard good things in the locker room from his teammates. “All of the coaches, all of the teammates have come up to me and have been like, ‘That’s so cool! This is sick!’ It’s been pretty fun to be in the facility after unmasking.”
Leading up to his elimination, panelists Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Ken Jeong, and Rita Ora paid Kobie some pretty big compliments, guessing he was Leon Bridges, Brian McKnight, Anthony Hamilton, and Al Green among others.
“They thought I was a Grammy-nominated or Grammy Award-winning musician,” he says. “That was really validating to know that I can go and do something in this music field. I don’t know what that looks like for me. Music is really about connecting with people, first and foremost, but just validating that as a real skill set and talent that I do have was really cool.”
Kobie is launching his new music website kobieturner.com where fans can see more of his musical side. He’s also an active poster on TikTok and Instagram.
This weekend, Kobie will be rockin’ some Goo-inspired cleats for the NFL’s My Cause Cleats program. His cleats support Save the Music Foundation, and the football star says music “altered the direction of my life.” He explains, “That was my way of understanding my emotions, of expressing myself. The person who gave me that outlet, who I attribute this to, was my high school choir director. She gave me the gift of music through choir.”
“A lot of my goals with music and with sharing this is to be able to give the youth back the opportunity to be able to have that same outlet that I had,” he says. “For me to be able to represent Save the Music is something that is so powerful for me. I’m super excited to do that. It all works out that I got unmasked at this time and our game is being broadcast this weekend by Fox. I’m able to also represent Goo on my cleats. We’re so much more than the boxes that society wants to put us in.”
