This country music icon is also a reality TV star, so it's easy to feel like you know
him: He's from Oklahoma, he likes to drink, he loves mocking Adam Levine, and he's had
some high-profile romances.
But there's more to the crooner than what you know from the tabloids and his songs.
Long before Blake Shelton was a staple on The Voice, he tried his hand at coaching and
judging two other reality singing competition shows that didn't pan out nearly as well as
the NBC ratings juggernaut.
In 2007, Shelton began his lucrative relationship with NBC when he served as a choir coach and
recruiter on Clash Of The Choirs, where he scouted for talent in Oklahoma City, and,
similarly to The Voice, performed with his team.
The same year, he was also a judge on Nashville Star on the USA Network for the show's fifth
season.
When asked if he was worried he'd be more considered a television personality than a
country artist given his career trajectory, Shelton was characteristically frank.
He told Rolling Stone,
"My job at The Voice is to represent country music.
I take that very seriously.
So many hit songs have been launched from this show, and so many songs have been discovered.
It's bringing music into 13 million people's living rooms.
There's nothing but f--kin' awesomeness that comes out of that."
"Blake Shelton may not have won Season 16 of The Voice, but he is still the greatest
of all time!"
Blake Shelton is one of the highest-paid country stars on the planet thanks to reality TV.
Forbes reported that Shelton made $32 million in 2019, largely due to a hefty pay day from
The Voice.
According to The Wrap, Shelton made $13 million for The Voice alone in 2016 - and Radar Online
reported in January 2017 that Shelton and girlfriend Gwen Stefani each got bonuses for
milking their offscreen romance on TV.
Go ahead and take that claim with the appropriate grain of salt.
While the paycheck is nice, there have been reports that Shelton is getting tired of actually
doing the show.
Insiders told Radar Online that Shelton got salty when Miley Cyrus and especially Jennifer
Hudson each temporarily replaced Stefani on the coaching panel, but his issues may have
extended beyond missing his girlfriend.
An insider also told Radar Online before Adam Levine quit that if Levine left, Shelton would
follow.
As of this writing, he hasn't, but the source also noted,
"Blake has made tens of millions of dollars on The Voice and he has gotten insane exposure
for his music, but the money and fame have changed Blake.
He is a cry baby if he doesn't get his own way and he barks orders at people."
"You wanna hug?"
"Get the hell away from me!"
"It's okay."
There's one thing Shelton openly says he doesn't love about The Voice, which records in Los
Angeles.
He admitted to Rolling Stone,
"I wish to God the show was taped in Nashville.
I'd be 200 times happier."
In December 2018, Blake Shelton donated $600,000 to kickstart what became the Blake Shelton
Cancer Research Program at Oklahoma University's Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City.
Two years earlier, he'd donated another $600,000 to the hospital's Jimmy Everest Center for
Cancer and Blood Disease in Children in honor of his cousin Aspen Van Horn, who underwent
cancer treatment there for neuroblastoma when she was just five months old.
He brought Van Horn onstage with him during a show in September 2016 in OKC and told the
crowd,
"This time last year, we had a scare [...] and we didn't know what was going to happen.
And you can see that she's here right now.
[...] Jimmy Everest Children's Hospital doesn't turn any kids away.
You come in there, you have a problem, they don't turn anybody away, so I thought, 'That's
a place that needs some money.
[...] Let's all do the right thing.'
This is our money, Oklahoma."
Blake Shelton still isn't really known for holding his tongue, but he learned a hard
lesson about trigger-happy Twitter fingers.
After stopping just short of voicing his support for a then very controversial candidate Donald
Trump in an August 2016 issue of Billboard and being named People's Sexiest Man Alive
in 2017, old Shelton tweets resurfaced that many interpreted as homophobic, sexist, racist,
and bodyshaming.
The posts included jokes mocking lesbians, references to violence against gay men, and
an insinuation that a non-english speaker was "planning to bomb" something.
The tweets were mostly from circa 2009 through 2011, before Shelton joined The Voice, so
they largely flew under the radar at the time they were posted.
When called out, Shelton deleted the offensive tweets and apologized with the following:
"Everybody knows comedy has been a major part of my career and it's always been out there
for anyone to see.
That said anyone that knows me also knows I have no tolerance for hate of any kind or
form.
Can my humor at times be inappropriate and immature?
Yes.
Hateful?
Never.
That said, I deeply apologize to anybody who may have been offended."
The scandal died down relatively quickly, and there's reportedly a reason for that.
Sources told Page Six that NBC and The Voice reps threatened to revoke "access to the show's
stars, and tapings" from outlets that reported on the tweets.
Shelton later griped to Rolling Stone that he was "tired of the drama" from Twitter and
the, quote, "crybaby reaction" to not being politically correct.
Considering how successful Blake Shelton is, it comes as somewhat of a shock to many casual
fans that he doesn't write most of his own songs.
He explained to CBS News,
"If I've written 200 songs in my life or 300 songs, I probably have 15 of those that I'm
proud of.
That I truly go, man, I did something there.
And I can't imagine me convincing myself that I'm a better songwriter than some of these
people in Nashville.
I just want the song to be the best song it can possibly be."
Shelton doesn't keep his lack of writing credits a secret, however, and frequently speaks out
in support of Nashville songwriting teams.
Still, the ones he does write, such as "Friends" from the Angry Birds soundtrack and "Go Ahead
and Break My Heart," are usually fan favorites.
He and then-wife Miranda Lambert collaborated on "Over You," inspired by the death of Shelton's
older brother in a car accident in 1990, as well as several others close to the couple.
Lambert told Headline Country in 2012,
"He doesn't write that much - I'm definitely way more into songwriting than he is.
But when he does, it's extremely special."
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