Apple Music’s countdown to the holidays continues on ‘From Apple Music With Love,’ with an exclusive show over the weekend from Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani. Blake and Gwen bring their Christmas fun to this one-hour special, sharing their family traditions, memories, music, anecdotes and more.
Blake Shelton Jokes That Falling Asleep is The Key To Recording A Perfect Christmas Vocal…
Gwen Stefani: That was Blake Shelton – “Let It Snow!” And Blake, how did you sing that so good, huh?
Blake Shelton: I’ll tell you what I remember about singing that song. I was renting a house…. And we were doing the third or fourth season of The Voice. I think the third. And this was back when The Voice was before they really had it down to a science. And I remember at times thinking, “Was I just asleep while I was singing?” “Did I just fall asleep while I was singing?” I was that tired. But I think being that laid back and that relaxed and so in the zone, it really helped with my vocals for that Christmas album.
Gwen Stefani: But also, I think one thing I know about you is that you absolutely love Christmas music. I mean, as soon as we can, we start listening to Christmas music, right?
Blake Shelton: I always just wanted to be like my heroes growing up. So that’s why I’d love singing their songs more than any of my own.
Gwen Stefani Says That Time Spent On Blake Shelton’s Ranch Inspired Her To Do A Christmas Album…
We were talking a lot about doing covers and doing other people’s songs, and one of my favourite life moments was writing a Christmas song. It was very spiritual. I was actually going for a run on your ranch and it was one of the first moments where I was like, “Okay, I need to write a Christmas album. I’m going to go out and I’m going to think about it. I’m going to pray about it. And I’m going to run on your ranch.” And all of a sudden, this Christmas song called “Christmas Eve” came to my brain, it was like a miracle. And I started booking back to the lodge because I was like, “Oh my gosh, I got to get my phone. Did I just write this song? How did this happen?” And it was like a pure Christmas miracle. And I was like, singing it to my mom, my mom and dad were there, and I was like, “Does this sound like a church song? Did I copy this?”
Gwen Stefani Discusses Blake Shelton Covering Her Song “Christmas Eve” And Says Blake Shelton Is One Of Her Musical Heroes…
Gwen Stefani: You ended up covering that song, which was one of the greatest things ever. I remember we went to Capitol Records. Scott Hendricks, my hero, your producer, produced a song I wrote on your ranch, a Christmas song, that Busbee helped me write. It was just this full circle moment to have. You are one of my heroes, one of my musical heroes.
Blake Shelton: Wow.
Gwen Stefani: To have you cover a song I wrote, to me, that’s one of my favourite life stories that ever happened to me as a songwriter.
Blake Shelton: Trying to figure out how to make mine different from yours. I just loved the song and I loved the fact that you wrote it at the ranch. The only difference in the two is yours is better.
Blake Shelton: But I did get some help. My friend, Shane Tarleton, helped me organize getting some kids from the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital there in Nashville.
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton Discuss Their Christmas Traditions…
Blake Shelton: Okay, Gwen, let’s talk about this. So every year, and this goes back to 2016, I think, you and I have this tradition. It’s really the only holiday tradition, I think, that we have, besides the obvious ones. We go out of our way to find a recipe. And it’s always got to be the most difficult thing that you can imagine, whether it’s like a beef Wellington, which I didn’t even know what that was until I met you.
Gwen Stefani: The fact that you wanted to make a tradition out of, it’s almost like an anti-tradition, because a tradition is something that you’ve done your whole life, and that you keep repeating. But you keep trying to not repeat and make something new again and again and again. And that’s your tradition. And that makes me really uncomfortable, because growing up as a child, my parents were very traditional. So like the idea that now I somehow have control over what we’re actually putting in our mouths at Christmas, it makes me feel like I’m going to get in trouble. Like no, now we’re going to try this recipe. So anyways, thank you for pushing me, pushing me to find new creative ways to feed our family.
Blake Shelton : My two favourite things are you and food? I mean, that’s just-
Gwen Stefani: That’s so weird. You copied me, because those are my two favourite things. Not me. But you and food
Gwen Stefani Talks About Her “Craziest” Christmas Tradition…
Blake Shelton: One of the craziest things that I learned about you and your family, as far as holiday traditions go, is the wrapping paper wall the kids run through. And I’m not kidding when I talk about how serious this is to the Stefani’s. Is that something you just started with Kingston first? Or is that something that you guys did as kids that your parents did? Because I’ve never known you to take anything more serious when it comes to a party type thing than this wrapping paper wall that they run through.
Gwen Stefani: When there’s a serious moment, you’ve got to know that it didn’t come from me. It came from Dennis Stefani. When we were kids growing up, we had a hallway with all the bedrooms and then there was the living room. And so basically where all the toys and presents and everything and the tree, the opening to that room … I’m trying to describe it so people could visualize this … was all covered with wrapping paper and a big bow. And we had to crash through it to actually see what Santa brought. Basically we did that our whole lives.
Blake Shelton Says He Never Wanted To Spend Christmas Anywhere Except Oklahoma Until He Met Gwen Stefani…
Blake Shelton: I never wanted to be anywhere else during Christmas time but home in Oklahoma until I met you. And now I think every single Christmas I’ve spent here with you and the boys, and it’s been incredible.
Gwen Stefani Discusses The First Time She Watched Blake Shelton On TV….
Gwen Stefani: So I was on The Voice. I didn’t know Blake. I didn’t even know that he existed as a human being, let alone an artist, and when I got on the show, I was Googling him and watching old reruns of The Voice to try to figure out why people liked him so much. One of my nannies was like, “Oh, he’s so hot.” Yeah. And I was like … “He is?” Okay. I was like, “Really?” I was like, “Okay, I could see that.” And then the more I watch the show, the more I could see wow, he’s funny, he’s tall. I started to get it, right? Anyways, I had this fantasy of writing a song with you or doing something because at that time of my life, I was really searching for my next music, what I would do. I was really trying to like be inspired, and the fact that I got to be on one of your songs, that you asked me to be on a song, was my fantasy. Dreams come true, guys. Christmas miracles happen to people.
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton Discuss Working Together…
Blake Shelton: Well, that’s cool. It’s funny because when I look back now, we’ve written a couple of songs together, only two that I can think of. And two songs that were out on radio, “Happy Anywhere” and “Nobody But You” were both big records for me. Thank you for helping with that.
Gwen Stefani: Honestly, the fact that I’m on two country records with you makes zero sense in my life timeline. I always try to think about how did that happen, but yet, it felt so natural and so real and so organic the way it all happened.
Blake Shelton: It did. There was never one moment after we got in the studio that I ever thought, “Oh man, this is … We’re way too different. This isn’t going to work.” I mean, from the second we started singing together and I heard your voice and standing in the control room with Scott, listening to your voice come through the speakers. It was like, “Oh man, this has it. Whatever it is, this has it.”
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton Discuss “Nobody But You”…
Blake Shelton: Let’s play the other song “Nobody But You.” It’s got to be still crazy whenever you’re listening to country station and you hear your voice come on there.
Gwen Stefani:This song is an incredible song. This song, when I heard this one, I was like, “Gosh, you put me on ‘Happy Anywhere’, I love that song, but dang, I wish I was on this one.” And then you were like, “I’m going to call Scott I’m going to put you on both of them.” And I was like, “Oh my gosh.” I wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to be like can I be on two your songs?
Blake Shelton: We did it, and we put them out back to it back. So here it is, this is “Nobody But You.”
Blake Shelton Discusses Writing A Christmas Song With His Mum…
Oh, you’ve worked with Ryan Tedder, but you haven’t gotten the opportunity to work with Dorothy Shackleford. My mother… It’s funny, my mum, over the years she’s dabbled in songwriting, or she you’ll be like, “I don’t know why you don’t write this song about this,” or whatever. And so, finally, when I was making my Christmas album, I said, “Mum, let’s me and you write a song together, and you can sing it with me on my album. And there’s your Lucille Ball moment. You can finally have your moment to be famous.” And it’s just a basic, very simple country song. But it’s basically about a guy who gets a phone call from his mum. And even though he’s crazy busy in his life, his mum reminds him, “Hey, it’s Christmas time. You need to get your butt back home. We got to have Christmas together.” And it’s a simple song, but man, we had no idea it was going to end up turning into a book deal for my mum.
Blake Shelton Discusses His Mum’s Christmas Films…
And then from the book, it became basically this series of movies. The fourth one, which is out now on Hallmark Channel, I think it’s out now, or it’s going to be in the next few weeks. And they’ve reinvented the title, like, It’s Time For Me To Come Home, Time For You To Come Home, Time For Us To Come. It’s amazing what they’re able to do over there, but it’s been a cool experience to have that with my mum. So, here’s this song, by the way, it’s called “Time For Me To Come Home.”
Gwen Stefani On Writing About Falling In Love With Blake…
I wrote this song on the ‘This Is What The Truth Feels Like’ album, which was the album I wrote when I was actually falling in love with you, Blake Shelton. So I have half the album is heartbroken, I want to die songs. And then halfway through writing that album, I met my best friend for life, Blake Shelton. And then I started writing songs about you, and you are my muse. And there’s a song on the album that I don’t feel like was a single, that should’ve been a single, that I want people to hear. So it’s easy for me to pick this next song. This next song is a song about Blake Shelton, and it’s called “Rare.”
Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani Discuss Their Christmas Duet “You Make It Feel Like Christmas”…
We have to talk about our Christmas duet, “You Make It Feel Like Christmas”. Because it’s, I mean it’s got to be the centrepiece of this whole thing that we’re doing here on Apple Music. And you brought up Sophie [Muller], because Sophie did the video for this song and she’s been such a big part of our lives together. But let’s talk about that song and writing it because I remember, I don’t know where I was, but I know I was doing a show somewhere, and I was sitting on the bus and all I could think about was your Christmas record. Because you had sent me a couple of work tapes of things that you guys had already written. And I don’t know why, but I started thinking about it, and I was trying to think, “Man how can I help in some way?” I really feel like I didn’t have as much to do with it as you pretend like I do.
Gwen: That’s so silly.
Blake: But I never would’ve dreamed it would go on to be the song that you guys ended up making out of that little small idea that I had.
