When Kelvin “Rock” Robinson decided to sing one karoke song at the Fox 1 lounge in the fall of 1996, little did he know that within a year, he would be crowned the state champion of karoke.

A stunning feat for anyone, but for Robinson, 40, who had to overcome a troubled adolescence, the award is even more atypical because he has been completely deaf since the age of 20.

He said he gradually lost his hearing because of physical abuse during his adolescence and could no longer hear after a scuba diving accident.

Robinson, senior in liberal studies, said that one night he happened to get a flat tire outside the Fox 1 lounge, 111 S. 5th St., and when he went into the bar for help, a patron encouraged him to try his luck at karoke.

“So I got up to sing, and people stopped talking and started listening,” Robinson said.

Robinson removes his hearing aids while he sings.

“My hearing aids pick up everything,” he said, adding that he sings by feeling the “the vibrations and the scratches” of the songs.

Also, since it is karoke, “people look at you funny if you mess up,” he joked.

Robinson’s foray into karoke continued when he and a group of friends went to Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino in Altoona, where he once again entered a karoke contest.

“I got in there and sang,” Robinson said.

This was the starting point for a series of contests he entered.

In the last two years, Robinson went on to compete in contests including ones hosted by Showtime Showdown and the Fox In-House Karoke Contest. Robinson gained international karoke success when he won a karoke contest in London while studying abroad last summer.

He said he has won more than 16 contests and competed against more than 30 singers, including the state champion.

Robinson said the audience members rarely guess he is deaf.

“They didn’t have any idea until after the fact,” he said. “I like making people feel [with my voice], feeling is what helps. Too often today, people don’t like hearing those feelings; my voice is a ‘helping heal voice’ if that makes sense.”

Robinson, whose favorite karoke songs include “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” and “Mustang Sally,” admitted he was surprised most karoke audiences accepted him.

Robinson, who said he “hated singing with a passion” when he was a child, said he has received offers to cut singles from a music company in Nashville, but has not yet accepted any offers.

“I do stuff for fun, and when it becomes a job, it’s not as fun,” he said.

After running away from home at a young age and winding up with “the wrong people,” Robinson survived a terrible living situation until he finally escaped at age 17.

After years of drug abuse, Robinson said he turned his life around by attending private colleges, and finally by coming to Iowa State.

Robinson, who has had past jobs in television, including performing on a children’s television show in his 20s, is expecting to graduate in May. He will then work as an assistant on a television show in Alaska.

It is because of those earlier experiences, he said, that he learned to be a survivor.

“No. 1, I’m deaf, no. 2, I suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome,” Robinson said. “But I went on to college, I’m graduating, I’m going to be an assistant at KFC-TV in Alaska … the fact that I’m not dead, not in group homes, and still keep going on — that’s my surviving skill.”