With a booming baritone voice and an opera background, singer and songwriter Joshua Payne brings an unique set of skills to the pop table. Payne was born almost completely deaf, although an operation while he was still a toddler managed to restore most of his hearing, and music became a big factor in his rehabilitation to a world full of sounds. Payne's early childhood was spent in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, but when he was eight, he moved with his family to rural Arkansas.