Blake Shelton talks new album ‘Body Language’ on Today’s Country Radio. In the interview with Blake Shelton, he talks with Kelleigh Bannen about his career so far and the story behind the new record. Listen to the full episode on-demand here.
Blake on not immediately loving his first No. 1 song “Austin”
When I first heard “Austin”, I thought it was just super cheesy, and I was just like, “God, this guy is so desperate, let it go, dude. It’s been a year, you’re still putting this answering machine message on, what are you doing?” And so luckily back then I had Bobby Braddock and Debbie Zavitson in my ear going, “Listen, man, you need to just live with this song, work on it…” and I was just so stupid, I did, and thank God they stayed on me about that, because otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you 20 years later, probably.
Blake on why he connects with new song “Bible Verses”
“Bible Verses” was one for me. And I won’t say that it was that hard to get over the hump, but that song is so honest, and so intense, and so personal in ways when you sing it, because you’re going, “Oh my God, I’m telling everybody that I’m really not always everything I want to be,” but I think if we’re being honest as recording artists, as human beings, you got to go there, you know what I mean? Because I think what I’ve found with the limited amount of people that have heard “Bible Verses,” so many people come to me and they go, “Oh my God, man, that’s my song. Every night I go to bed, I pray that I’m a better person tomorrow, and that song just says it to me. And it’s like, sometimes I just feel like I’m never going to measure up to what God expects me to be.”
Blake on his relationship with The Swon Brothers
I’ve tried to, best I can, continue to have a relationship with those guys. Obviously, it’s easy to have a friendship relationship with them, but not a coach relationship with them, because who am I to say something like that. But I’m trying to keep a strong bond with those guys from the standpoint of helping them when I can, and let them bounce ideas off of me, and just being a shoulder for them to lean on when it’s that time, as far as career advice and stuff. And I mean, I try to include them on things that I have happening, whether it’s an Ol’Red or whatever. I mean, they’re just so unbelievably talented, but beyond that, just great guys and so charismatic, and I’m telling you, these guys are going to be stars, I don’t know when or how it’s going to happen, these guys are just so talented and they’re so entertaining.
Blake on losing interest in touring for awhile
It did lose its luster for a minute there, about 2012 or something, that’s when I was just starting. We went to two seasons of The Voice, The Voice was a brand new show, and I was touring full time, or as much as I could, and it became too much, it was too much for me personally. I mean, there was never a day off, it was just crazy, and I started resenting touring a little bit. I was like, “Oh my God, what is the point, what are we doing? I’m not enjoying it anymore.” And so we did the hardest thing probably for any country artists, or a manager, a booking agency you could ever do, is went, “We got to pull back as much as we possibly can.”
And since about 2013, I probably played, I don’t know, 25 shows a year? And that’s obviously not very many for any artist that is trying to maintain that touring profile. But what it has done is, it’s kept me so excited about when I go on stage now, because it’s been a month, half the time, since I’ve been on the stage, and until we get to that tour. And the tours are exciting, because I’m not rolling into them, burnout from the tour that just ended, like you do amphitheaters, and then you go into arenas. And it’s just that one moment that we have a year, it’s like, “Hey, we get to go be country stars this month.” And it’s so exciting, and it’s something that I look forward to, I really do.
