xDid you know that there's a popular country music singer who's eaten crow,
kept a turkey as a pet, and accidentally dyed his hair blue? It's all true, and he's
one of the most famous musicians in America. This is the untold truth of Blake Shelton.
Blake Shelton's talent was apparent from an early age,
which led to his mother entering him in pageants, though that almost backfired a bit.
"I hated it so much that I almost, like, didn't want to, like, be a singer anymore."
The pageants typically contained a talent portion that allowed a 7-year-old Shelton
to demonstrate his singing skills. But as he recalled to Entertainment Tonight in 2015,
"In order for me to sing in the pageant, like my mom wanted me to,
I had to do the evening wear and all that crap."
Shelton also reluctantly discussed his pageant days during a visit to The Kelly Clarkson Show
in 2020. He revealed that his two big showstopping numbers were Bob Seger's
"Old Time Rock and Roll" and Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever." According to Shelton,
the latter song wasn't exactly a hit with the soccer moms in the audience,
who presumably weren't thrilled to see a young boy singing such suggestive lyrics.
"Did your eveningwear end up helping you win, though?"
Back in 2017, People Magazine announced that Shelton was that year's recipient of their annual
Sexiest Man Alive honor. But if Shelton is to be believed, nobody was more surprised than he was,
as he joked at the time that his reaction to the news was:
"Y'all must be running out of people."
A few years later, Shelton reflected on what it was like to be the Sexiest
Man Alive during an interview on CBS This Morning. As he put it,
"I remember when that magazine came out, you know,
of course there’s gonna be blowback and hate. But I remember, I was like, 'Man,
they’re right.' Like, I don’t disagree with any of this that I’m hearin'."
Despite his skepticism, the accolade did offer Shelton the opportunity to lord it
over his fellow Voice coach Adam Levine, who himself had been named Sexiest Man
Alive back in 2013. This played out in a behind-the-scenes segment for the show,
in which Shelton revealed a giant poster of his People cover plastered on the side of a building.
"They mucked up the pages of People."
Reality TV has been very good to Blake Shelton, as he is the longest-serving coach on The Voice
and the only one to have been on every single season since it premiered in 2011. However,
some words he once uttered back in the day have since come back to haunt him. In a 2008 interview
with The Boot, he was asked which reality TV show he'd most like to be on, to which he responded,
"I hate reality shows. But if I had to be on one,
I’d have to say Realtree Road Trips on the Outdoor Channel."
Considering this admission, it shouldn't be too surprising that Shelton was initially a
bit wary of signing on when he was approached about joining The Voice. He originally passed
on the offer, but he had a change of heart when he found out that Christina Aguilera
had officially joined the show. The way Shelton saw it, if a superstar
of her stature was involved, then he should probably reconsider. As he told Men's Journal,
"I was like, 'F---, who am I to be the holdout?' I'm the country guy nobody's ever heard of."
Shelton ultimately proved to be a breakout star on the show,
and Adam Levine explained to Men's Journal the secret to his fellow judge's success, explaining,
"He has this kind of punk-rock mentality, where he's not afraid to speak his mind,
not afraid to say the wrong thing."
"Blake's shameless, you know, like he doesn't have any shame."
Blake Shelton is a man who has had some odd pets, and perhaps the oddest of them all is a turkey
named, of all things, "Turkey." Shelton even developed a hankering
to start bringing the bird to award shows as his plus one. As he explained to CMT in 2003,
"It's because I feel a responsibility to [...] expose him to some different things in the world.
Up until this point, he’s been to Arkansas one time. He has been to Oklahoma,
which is where he was born, and now he lives in Tennessee. So, I feel like, without me,
he doesn’t get to do things, and I feel a responsibility to show him the world."
Shelton was also given a pet by a fan one time, which he didn't even realize until after he'd
taken the paper sack he'd been handed back to his tour bus. As he revealed to The Boot in 2013,
"I put the sack in my lap and opened it,
and a live iguana jumped out of the sack and onto my shirt. I screamed
like a little girl! I think it took a year off my life — it scared the crap out of me."
Being asked to join the Grand Ole Opry is the dream of any aspiring country singer.
It's proof positive that you've truly arrived as a member of Nashville's most exclusive club.
Blake Shelton was invited to join the Opry back in 2010, but in a rather unusual manner, as he
was the first-ever singer whose Opry invitation was delivered via Twitter. It was sent while
Shelton was performing a duet with fellow country singer Trace Adkins. As reported by The Boot, as
soon as their song finished, Adkins pulled out his cellphone and showed it to Shelton and told him,
"Wait a minute, Blake. You are always on the internet tweeting your fans;
now, someone has sent you a message via Twitter."
Shelton then read the the tweet from the Opry, which read,
"@blakeshelton, you're invited to join the Grand Ole Opry. See you on 10/23/2010!"
When Shelton was inducted, he declared,
"I know a lot of guys who want this as bad as I do ... but forget about them. This moment,
hands down, is the highlight of my career."
In 2017, Shelton made a successful foray into the world of hospitality when he opened his
Ole Red bar in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. He eventually opened more locations in the
Tennessee cities of Nashville and Gatlinburg, as well as Orlando, Florida. And in 2021,
Shelton took to Instagram to announce plans to open another location at Nashville International
Airport. The Tishomingo location also hosts an adjoining music hall called the Doghouse,
which features live performances from a mix of established country entertainers
and up-and-coming stars-in-the-making. As Shelton explained in an interview on the Ole Red website,
"The Doghouse is creating the opportunity of a lifetime,
even if it's just for one kid out there somewhere."
"I did feel like there was a need for something like that in this community,
not just a restaurant, but maybe a tourist-type attraction."
The Tishomingo location retains a special place in Shelton's heart,
as it is the first Ole Red he opened and it's located within his beloved home state of Oklahoma.
But it's the Gatlinburg location that is actually his favorite. As he told Knox News in 2019,
"I would say from an artist's standpoint, this is my favorite of the three because
of the setup of the stage and what you can see out here in front of you with the two levels."
In addition to his various responsibilities as a country singer,
TV personality and tavern entrepreneur, Blake Shelton also occasionally lends himself out as a
pitchman for various products. Such was the case in 2014 when he spoke to the Los Angeles Times
in his capacity as spokesman for Pizza Hut's new Bacon Cheese Stuffed Crust pizza.
As he was being paid for his endorsement, it should come as
no surprise that he described the pizza in over-the-top glowing terms, as he gushed,
"If there was a way to combine awesome with greatness this is what it is."
During the course of this food-centric interview, Shelton was asked to single out the "craziest"
food he'd ever eaten, and he offered an appropriately bonkers response, as he declared,
"Crow. A friend and myself actually cooked some
crow so we could actually say we've eaten crow. Don't ever do that."
Shelton also revealed some of his other favorite foods in addition to the stuffed-crust pizza he
was there to promote. As it turns out, his favorite dish to cook is steak, his go-to
brand of beer is Bud Light, and the one dessert he can't live without is Rice Krispies Treats.
A 2013 Men's Journal profile of Shelton casually referenced the singer's tendency to add "a splash
of vodka" to his on-set cup while shooting The Voice. The following year, Shelton and his fellow
judge Adam Levine were speaking with Entertainment Tonight when the topic of the liquid in their cups
was broached again. Levine revealed that coffee was the only thing in his cup, while adding,
"Blake is a different story, he might want to be the one to tell you."
Shelton indeed fessed up, as he admitted,
"I have vodka. I drink vodka on the show [...] Now that I think of it,
every damn brand of vodka has been in that cup,
and I don't care if you like it or if anybody likes it, that's what I drink so get over it."
"I can tell by what you're saying right now you don't like it, but I like it."
Shelton is such a vodka aficionado that he eventually launched his own
brand called Smithworks American Made Vodka by Blake Shelton.
As the budding booze mogul declared in a statement,
"As part of the Smithworks family, I’ve been involved in the development of the brand,
and I’m excited for everyone to finally taste what we’ve been crafting. At its core,
Smithworks celebrates that moments in life are better spent with good people and great drinks."
Blake Shelton has gone on record to profess his love of stuffed-crust pizza
and Rice Krispies Treats, but he's also a big fan of a more naturally occurring food.
Specifically, corn. So much so that he actually wrote and recorded a song about it, entitled
simply "Corn," which appears on his 2021 album Body Language. Considering that Shelton's home
state of Oklahoma is pretty much bursting with corn, it makes sense that growing up surrounded
by the stuff would result in a musical tribute to the crop. The song features such lyrics as:
"Corn for as far as you can see around here"
And,
"Hey, look at all that corn."
Shelton discussed the origin of the song in an interview with Audacy, as he explained,
"I plant it, eat it. Like, it's everywhere. I literally did backflips when I heard that
song and I tried like hell [to make it the single]… I made a serious push for 'Corn.'"
Alas, the executives at his label balked, as Shelton further explained,
"They came back with, 'Hey man, I don't know that everyone is as into corn as you are.'
But they are! They just don't know it! It's in their chips, they're making corn bread,
they drive past it on the highway… it's everywhere."
Blake Shelton possesses an enviable head full of thick, shiny hair,
and maintaining those luscious locks takes some effort. In a 2003 interview with CMT,
he revealed the extreme lengths necessary to ensure his hair maintains its luster
and the downright unique methods he uses to keep it that way. As he explained,
"You know, I am raising chickens now, and I have started going out to the barn,
or when I am out on the road, I will go buy some eggs, and I use an egg mixture with ketchup,
believe it or not. I will soak my hair in that once a week for about an hour.
Other than that I just wash it in regular shampoo."
Over the years, Shelton's hair has begun to gray. While quarantining with Gwen Stefani in 2020,
his salt-and-pepper hair had become what he described as "just salt." As he revealed during
an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he took matters into his own hands and ordered a box of
Just for Men hair dye. Unfortunately, his DIY attempts at dyeing his hair left him with locks
that were blue or purple, so he finally allowed Stefani to take charge and do it the right way.
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