In his latest ‘At Home With’ conversation on Apple Music 1, Zane Lowe is joined by Blake Shelton to talk about working with fiancé Gwen Stefani, how he felt overwhelmed by his work on ’The Voice’, adjusting to life in the public eye, and more. The full interview with Blake Shelton is available on Apple Music 1.
Blake Shelton Tells Apple Music About Working With Fiancé Gwen Stefani…
Gwen and I wrote a song together about five years ago, I think, maybe six … called ‘Go Ahead and Break My Heart’, and it was on the ‘If I’m Honest’ album. And I remember at that time we were just starting to see each other and we were both going through horrible breakups, divorces, horrible in that it was just it was just sad. And there were times where Gwen and I would be like, “Are we rebounding here? Is that what we’re doing together? Because this makes no sense.” And so we would always have these conversations like, “Oh yeah, we’re just getting over our crap with each other.” And so that’s where that song was born out of, and it was interesting because all of a sudden there was this girl that I was just starting to see and spend time with and that I was obviously crazy about. As we wrote this song and we wrote it on voice notes or whatever, sending them back and forth with each other, and it was only then did it dawn on me, not that it dawned on me, but it really was a shocker to me that, “Oh my God, I’m writing a song with Gwen Stefani.” Only then did it hit me, she’s an incredible songwriter. These things she’s coming up with, and then her voice on the voice notes and the way she sounded just singing it like a little scratch vocal to show me what she was thinking.
…I’m still more in blown away fan shocked mode when I actually work with her. And there’s been times where she comes out on stage, we’ll have a plan if she’s at one of my concerts and we always try to keep it on the down low, and then we’ll start ‘Nobody But You’ or ‘Go Ahead And Break My Heart’, and then I’ll be singing it. And here I am dying from the time I stand on stage, walk out on stage until that moment hits, because I know on that set list people are going to —- in their seats when Gwen Stefani walks out here. It’s like I’m a kid on Christmas morning. And so that’s what it’s like for me working with her. It’s just exciting, it really is.
Blake Shelton Tells Apple Music How he Was ‘Overwhelmed’ By His Workload On ’The Voice’…
The thing that shook me and kind of knocked me off my game was I just kind of got overwhelmed by the workload. Because I just got overwhelmed by the workload of it all, and because of that, I started to lose interest a little bit, to be quite honest with you, about it. I never wanted that to be the case. I want every time I get on the stage or sit in the stupid red chair on The Voice, I want to be excited about it and I don’t want it to feel like, “Oh my God, I mean, you’re killing me here.” I had signed on to do The Voice, 2011, and at that point in my career, I was opening for Brad Paisley, which was a big opportunity for me. But then all of a sudden this television show landed in the middle of that and then the TV show blew up. I didn’t even really understand the television world. I remember we filmed half of the season and it started airing and by the time I got back to the show to start working when the show went live, I remember walking in and producers were running up to me like, “Oh my God, we have a hit. Can you believe we got a hit?” And I was like, “We do? What do you mean we have a hit?” I mean, my family are watching and we’re all excited, but I didn’t really understand that world. I still don’t really understand how to read television ratings. But anyway, so obviously, the show blew up bigger than anything I’ve ever experienced, blew up and immediately took over my life.
Blake Shelton Tells Apple Music About Adjusting To Life In The Public Eye And ‘Hiding In The House’ After ‘The Voice’…
I can pick and choose the days that I’m in the mood for it or not, and it’s up to me. I should never go to a restaurant on a day where I’m not up to someone approaching me. That’s on me, and I think that’s why I’ve never … And I’ve been with artists and I’ve seen them do it where they’re like, “You know what? Not today. I’m not doing that today.” And even though I relate to them for what they’re doing, also, I hate it for whoever they’re doing it to. Because this person, it’s their one chance in their life that they’re going to get a chance to say something that they wanted to say to this person. Yeah, and it’s hard for them too. And so I always just feel like, hey, look, if I go somewhere, then it must mean that I’m ready to high-five some people when I get out there. So, that’s what I do. Yes, it did take over my life in that way. It took away the public side of my life and pushed me into it. But you know what, I’m weird anyway. I live out in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma. And I mean, I am in L.A. half the time, but I’m pretty much a slug here. I live off of Gwen here and I just hide in the house so I got it pretty good.
Blake Shelton Tells Apple Music About Initially Hesitating To Release Another Album…
The nuts and bolts reasons are that it seems like maybe we’re moving towards a single driven music format in general. The way you look at it from a boring industry point of view is well, this song is being consumed on streaming. You go through all these things and it creates a bottom line, and it feels like albums are pushed over into a different place in the industry. At least for me it’s become that way. I don’t want to speak for everybody. I don’t want to let songs be on albums and then just be buried in the pile because they’re not the featured piece of music. A lot of times, if I cut a song that somebody else wrote, and I put it on the album, and it’s never a single, sometimes that’s almost like just burying it alive when maybe it could have had a life somewhere else. Who knows how some of those things could shake out.
The other thing is I’m about to turn 45 and sometimes it’s harder for me to just go, “Well, what is it that I felt like saying at this point in my life?” The truth is, if we’re just being honest here talking, I just like great songs. At this point in my life, I’m not trying to prove anything or make sure that people are receiving this special message that I’m trying to send them through my music.
Blake Shelton Tells Apple Music About Originally Thinking ‘Austin’ Was Cheesy…
When I first heard ‘Austin’, I didn’t even want to record it. I remember thinking, “Oh my God, this is the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. This guy is so desperate. Get over it, the girl left… but I thank God I had Bobby in my life and I had a lady by the name of Debbie Zavitson who was A&R Records or A&R for Giant Records and they were like, “Listen, we get what you’re saying, but just please just live with the song, live with it for a couple of weeks and every time you’re in your truck, listen to at a time or two, and I’m telling you.” And, it didn’t take long, maybe a day or two. I was like, “Okay.” At some point one of those listens got to me, but I didn’t see how I could fit in with that song as far as the way I sounded and sang. The demo that I had of that was like a piano based demo and I always considered myself a guitar banging guy, and so Bobby said to me, he said, “Well, just freaking learn it on the guitar then, and try to make it into something that fits what you do.” And, then that happened and the rest came… But, Austin is a mile marker for people that are country music fans because the story of the song, once you kind of leaned in and listened to this story, it had you, and those songs that mean something to people, they mark a point in their life, you know that. And so now 20 years later, I look at where we’ve put some tweets out about it being the 20 year anniversary and all the comments are like, “Oh my God, are you kidding me? 20 years, that was my whatever song and I still think… Or, that was my wedding song.” It was a big moment for country fans and obviously changed my life.
Blake Shelton Tells Apple Music About Returning To Live Shows…
I actually didn’t miss it for the first 12 months, but now these last three or four months is when I would normally have gone out to tour. Now I do miss it. At first it was almost like a snow day at school. It’s like, “Well, it’s not my fault. It’s not my fault we can’t go play. It’s not my fault. You can’t make me, because there’s a pandemic.” That only lasted for so long, and now it’s like, “Man.” I did a thing at the Grand Ole Opry a couple of weeks ago. It was the ACM Awards, and they had a limited amount of people there. It was just enough that it didn’t satisfy me, and it had the opposite effect on me. I thought maybe I would walk away from that going, “Man, this just sucked. I mean, what are we doing?” All it did was it kind of drove me further to really want to do it again in the way that we did a year and a half ago with packed houses and singing along and not looking over at each other and over each other’s shoulder and wondering, “What are they thinking right now?”
