HOW JASON GOULD RECLAIMED HIS VOICE

THE HOLLYWOOD HEIR REVEALS WHY HE WAS HESITANT TO FOLLOW IN HIS FAMOUS PARENTS' FOOTSTEPS

- LIZ MCNEIL

The first time Jason Gould played one of his songs for his mother, she told him, "I want to sing this with you." But he had a few concerns: He'd never sung in public before-and his mom is Barbra Streisand. "I didn't know if I was going to pass out," he recalls of their 2012 duet at the Hollywood Bowl. But the gig was a hit-and a sweet mother-son memory. "It was a very personal moment with her. It just happened to be in front of 18,000 people," Gould says. And while the positive reception was "lovely," he adds, "To be able to express that part of myself was my goal."

It took years for Gould, 57, the only son of Streisand, 81, and her first husband, actor Elliott Gould, 85, to make music his way. "I was always a kid who would sit at the keyboard and come up with little melodies," he says. It wasn't until he was 15 that his mom overheard him through the door and knew he could sing. "It was a part of me that I was afraid to explore because my mother was an icon in that world," he recalls. "It was like, 'I don't want to be compared to her,' so I dampened down that part of myself for a long time."