The Voice alum Billy Gilman has wed his partner, Anthony Carbone, in a ceremony attended by 115 family members and friends in Rhode Island.
Gilman and Carbone were both raised in the state.
Gilman, 36, is a singer who first gained attention as a child. At just 11, he enjoyed a hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart with his single, “One Voice”, in 2000. It even earned him a Grammy nomination.
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He found wider fame in 2016 when he participated as a contestant on the 11th season of The Voice. Mentored by Adam Levine, Gilman ended the season as runner-up, behind winner Sundance Head.
Coming out
Following his brush with child stardom, Gilman came out as gay in 2014 in a YouTube video hours after fellow country singer Ty Henderson also came out.
“Today a fellow country artist and friend made it easier for me to make this video,” Gilman said in the video.
He went on to reveal that a photographer had snapped photos of him and a partner he was “sharing my life with” at a festival in Rhode Island (not Carbone but an earlier boyfriend).
“And this reporter took a picture of us and it was in that moment that I knew that I’d rather it be from me than you reading it somewhere else and probably filled with not-truth.”
Marriage
Gilman and Carbone tied the knot on Friday in the scenic surroundings of a 45-acre horse farm.
Carbone, 32, revealed to People that he’d spent a lot of time visiting the farm as a child and it “felt like home.”
The outlet carried exclusive images from the event.
You can get a taste of the venue and event from the video by a vendor below.
Carbone went on to say the day was “not about the pomp and the fuss of everything — but about what it all means to us.”
“I just really wanted to keep it simple, with the closest core of our family and friends who have watched our love story grow every single day,” he added.
The two men met through mutual friends in a Providence bar in 2022 and immediately “hit it off”, according to Carbone.
Gilman says the feeling was mutual.
“[Carbone] sat down, and I immediately knew … it hit me over the head like a hammer.”
He was initially cautious of jumping into a new relationship but realized he couldn’t afford to not take the risk.
“We met up again and that’s when I said, ‘I got to follow my heart.’ I said [to Carbone], ‘Would you want to go on a first date?’ “
“[We’ve] been inseparable ever since, leading up to this one getting on his knee,” Gilman adds. “I’m super grateful for our friends, that’s for sure. It’s just, when you know you know.”
Carbone proposed on Sept. 24, 2023, after attending a Pam Tillis concert in East Greenwich, RI, with Gilman’s parents. Even though it was pouring with rain, Gilman says that when Carbone got down on one knee, it was “like a perfect movie scene … I was sobbing — but he couldn’t tell with the rain.”
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Thad
It’s Ty Herndon, not Ty Henderson.
Otherwise…thanks for the article! Best wishes to Billy and Anthony. Love wins.