Today we catch up with the country music superstar who's going from strength to strength after his incredible 25 year career, 29 number one hits. He's won nine Grammys and he's been a coach on The Voice for over 10 years now. That's where he met his wife, fellow superstar Gwen Stefani, and there is no doubt about it, he is on top of the world.
Today we catch up with one of the nice guys of the business, Mr Blake Shelson. She's headed. I'm guessing I reckon she's probably in Texas.
Blake Shelton, it is great to see you, sir. How you doing, man? I'm doing great.
I'm fired up. I think this is my very first ever interview in Australia ever. I'm sure I bumped into you somewhere along the way.
Well, you should be on top of the world. You got a new record, a new record label. You got friends and family singing on this.
Happy days, right, man? It is. And it's been 4 years since I've released an album.
I started wondering if if if it had been so long that maybe the the window had even closed. You know, it's like, you know, how this business is, it can be brutal and uh that people can move on in a hurry. So, I was nervous to see if if uh how Texas would do, if it would be received or not.
And and it's it's done really well for us and and uh and I'm really proud of the album. I hear you hanging on the other side of this town. Somehow that messes me up.
You're singing with your good wife the song Hanging On. Everything all right? Yeah, as far as I know.
We're trying not We're trying not to live the lyrics of this one. That's a big difference between Gwen and I. She has to be able to relate to a lyric, you know, to be able to sing it that she feels that feels good about it, you know.
And I just finally told her, I go, "Well, look, this is for my album and even though we're not we're not breaking up, just do it for my album and pretend like we're we're broken up, you know? " So, I finally got her I got her over the hump so she would sing it with me. And then you do the get back together song for for your record, right?
That's right. That's right. Yeah.
You've seen Taylor Swift explode and then broaden out. You know, Beyonce's on a global country tour, stage coach, huge. So many successful country artists.
You wouldn't have thought all that was possible, would you? It's exciting to me to have uh you know, these huge artists from completely other genres, you know, stepping in to to country music. Now, I never met Beyonce, but I I do have a firsthand account of of working with Post Malone.
I got to tell you, man. I mean that that guy knows as much about country music and is a fan of country music as any country artist I've met in the last 20 years. [Music] [Applause] [Music] You're on your friends and heroes tour.
You're on telly as a coach on the voice. I mean you're busy. Life is good.
Man, I've been I've been so lucky, Richard. I I I got to tell you, man. When I first started, I was 24 years old when my first single came out.
And I remember thinking, man, if I can just get a song on the on the radio, like, if I can just get a song on the radio, I I can walk away from this thing knowing that it was worth moving to Nashville. And then uh once I had my first song on the radio, my goal changed to if I could ever just have a gold record, if I could just get a gold record, you know, and then that thing happened. And uh so to answer your question, you know, after those two things happened and to still be uh doing this thing, doing an interview with you in Australia, you know, like promoting an album 25 years later, I I I I could have never have hoped for this and and I I know how lucky I am.
Well, our mutual friend Keith Urban says lovely things about you. I love him so much. you know, we're working together on a new television show here and he's really one of my favorite people and not just in the industry, just one of my favorite people.
I love that guy. Ditto, Blake, lovely to talk to you, mate. I hope we see you in this neck of the woods before too long.
Thank you. Thank you, Richard. Me, too.
[Music] This is God's country. What a lovely guy he is. So down to earth and humble for recreational use only is the name of the album.
It is out now. Blake Shelton. He is just on fire.
I love when he says this is God's country. Beautiful. Beautiful.
Thank you, Dicky. Love it.