Was Blake Shelton the Inspiration for Gwen Stefani’s New Single?

Blake Shelton with neon sign
(Photo credit: Instagram)

If you saw the GRAMMYs Monday night (2/15) you saw a nod to boyfriend Blake Shelton from Gwen Stefani in her new music video. However, I’m wondering if Blake inspired the song entirely?

To begin with, Gwen made history by filming her new music video for her song “Make Me Like You” live during the GRAMMYs during one of the commercial breaks. That meant that she needed to basically do the music video in one take with no mistakes.

That wasn’t an easy task since she went through several costume changes as she moved through different sets during the nearly four-minute music video. The nod to Blake comes at around the two-minute mark when Gwen enters a bar set that has a neon sign naming it “Blake’s.” Several sources have said that sign is actually Blake’s signature and was made just for this video.

Here’s why I wonder if the inspiration for the song was also Blake. Gwen has said several times that she wrote her entire current album based on things she was and is going through in her life in the past year including her divorce. When you think about that and her new romance with Blake as you read the lyrics from the song like the first verse, you have to think it was likely inspired by her new romance with her fellow coach from “The  Voice.”

Here are the first verse lyrics from the song, see what you think…

I was fine before I met you
I was broken but fine
I was lost and uncertain
But my heart was still mine
I was free before I met you
I was broken but free
All alone in the clear view, but now you are all I see

I’m sure that Gwen will get asked that question in future interviews and we will have to wait and see what her response to it is. Since she hasn’t opened up a lot directly about her and Blake’s relationship, we may not ever get a straight out answer.

One thing we know is that Blake got to keep the neon sign from the music video. Executive produce for the project Mary Ellen Duggan posted the picture above to Instagram of Blake holding the sign along with the message, “Look who walked away with one of our props. Thanks for being a part of the video @blakeshelton @gwenstefani”

You can watch the music video for “Make Me Like You” by Gwen Stefani below and decide for yourself if you think it was inspired by Blake Shelton. The “Blake’s” bar part happens at around the two-minute mark.

By: Buck Stevens