EMLENTON — “I don’t remember ever not watching (‘American Idol’),” said 15-year-old Isaac Cole.

Now he is on the television show.

The home-schooled Emlenton teen auditioned in August in Philadelphia, but by contract, he cannot say how his audition turned out.

Does he make it to Hollywood? Does he make it to the live shows? Nobody but his family knows. Until the Wednesday episode, that is.

Cole’s audition can be seen on the Philadelphia audition show Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Fox, according to Cole. If the judges like his audition, he will continue to Hollywood Week, when contestants are cut again to identify the top 24 who will participate on the live shows in February.

Cole began his inspirational country music career when he was only 4 years old, singing Josh Turner’s “Long Black Train” at church. Despite never performing before, Cole was a natural and knew just how to play the crowd, said his mother, Cheryl McNany.

“We kind of knew at that point that we were in for something,” she said.

At four, Cole’s voice was “a whole octave above (Turner’s),” but now he can sing the song in the original key, he said with a laugh.

At 6, Cole picked up a guitar, and by 10, he was proficient enough to perform on stage to his own standards, he said.

After taking lessons for the guitar and violin, Cole picked up other instruments on his own, including electric lead guitar, banjo and mandolin. Right now, Cole said he is teaching himself how to play the Dobro.

For Christmas in 2012, Cole received a banjo and immediately went to work learning the instrument.

“Two weeks later, he announced that he wanted to play it in the church band,” said Frank McNany, his father.

Since then, Isaac has been playing with God’s Country Band at the First United Methodist Church in Butler.

For his “audition” with the band, Frank McNany told the band ahead of time that they could simply tell Cole he needed to practice some more.

Cole, who did not have a copy of the music for the banjo, was able to keep up by playing by ear and watching the guitarist, translating the notes from the guitar to the banjo in his head, he said.

After that, Cole was told he could play with the church band whenever he wanted, according to his father, who was impressed by Cole’s quick learning and ability to translate notes between instruments.

“If I lose myself in the music sheets, I just cheat and play by ear,” Cole admitted, saying he loves to play in that manner.

After that, Cole recorded his first album, “Country Boy,” when he was just 11 years old.

Cole found a mentor in Tommy Brandt, another inspirational country music singer, who became Cole’s album producer. Through Brandt, he found connections with the genre of music, Cole said.

In 2012, Cole won the Youth in Music award from the ICM awards and then in 2014, he was named the New Artist of the Year at the ICM awards, making him the youngest to win the award, he said.

Initially, Cole wanted to wait another year to audition for “American Idol,” to give himself time to mature and further develop his singing. But with this season being the show’s last, Cole realized he had to do it now.

With Cole’s hairstyle, the celebrity judges, Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr., took to calling him the Country Bieber, a reference to the hairstyle singer Justin Bieber had at the beginning of his fame.

Although Cole and his family cannot comment on his success on the show, one YouTube video from the official “American Idol” channel shows Cole accepting a golden ticket to Hollywood from the judges.

Shows involving the Hollywood week cuts to narrow down the top 24 contestants are pretaped, with live shows and public voting starting in February, he said.

Cole and his family will host a viewing party at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Texas Roadhouse in the Clearview Mall in Center Township.