Thirty-five-year-old North Carolina native Josh Sanders had his pick of the country coaches during The Voice‘s premiere episode on Monday night (Feb. 26), after a rousing cover of Nate Smith’s “Whiskey on You.”

Sanders’ true-blue country Blind Audition earned him chair turns from Reba McEntire, who confidently turned first after he hit an impressive high note, and Dan + Shay, who tapped their buzzer right as Sanders finished his song.

This season’s two non-country coaches, Chance the Rapper and John Legend, sat back this round and watched the friendly competition ensue.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Legend joked, as McEntire began to make her pitch to Sanders in an effort to sway him to her team.

“The power, once you got into it, I really did like it,” she said, joking that she figured it’d be a competition between her and Dan + Shay even before any chairs were turned.

“That’s a very hard song to sing. There’s a lot of range in that,” Dan + Shay’s Shay Mooney added. “… When I was hearing those high notes, I just felt like the power of your voice was fantastic. I said, ‘We can’t just give it to Reba.'”

Sanders bonded with Dan + Shay over shared experiences of playing out in Nashville, as well as growing up with family members who served as pastors in their local church.

Ultimately, though, the prospect of working with a legend like McEntire was too enticing to pass up.

“Guys, I love y’all, but I can’t turn down the queen of country,” Sanders said, as he officially joined Team Reba.

McEntire picked up a couple of contestants on the premiere episode of The Voice, but Sanders is her first straight-ahead country cowboy, a fact she celebrated on social media after the fact.

Blind Auditions for Season 25 of The Voice will continue on Tuesday night (Feb. 27) during part two of the premiere episode on NBC.