Blake Shelton is on the cover of this week’s Billboard Magazine and he talked about his career, divorce, Gwen Stefani and much more with the publication.
The feature story from Billboard starts out describing how Blake randomly took over the stage at a small bar in Nashville and performed acoustically for about an hour. Then, the interview was moved to Blake’s management headquarters, the Starstruck Entertainment building on Nashville’s Music Row.
The article covers Blake’s tendency to say what he wants, do what he wants and not worry about how people will take it or if it will hurt his career. Blake told Billboard, “I am who I am. Sometimes that gets mistaken for ‘Blake Shelton is an a–hole.’ I’m not. I just don’t want to be dishonest with anybody.”
Blake also talks about his high-profile divorce from Miranda Lambert and describes that time as when he was, “at rock bottom, in the middle of hell.” While he doesn’t share any specific details, he does again allude to the idea that if you listen to his latest album If I’m Honest you will get some insight into the situation. The publication has an interesting observation about Blake’s current single “She’s Got A Way With Words,” which he did not write. If you want to know what that observation is, read the entire Billboard feature story here.
Blake does reveal some specific details about how his friendship with Gwen Stefani began and how it blossomed into romance and love.
Blake explains that when The Voice season nine in the spring of 2015, he told his fellow coaches and producers about his divorce. He shares that the reason he revealed the news was that by the time the early pre-recorded episodes of the season aired, his divorce would be finalized and he didn’t want them to reference Miranda as his wife on the show since she wouldn’t be at that time.
Blake admits that the reaction the news got from Gwen kind of surprised him. “I looked over at Gwen — who I didn’t really know — and she had these huge tears in her eyes. I thought, ‘Wow, she feels super bad for me!'” Prior to that day he had only had small talk with Gwen on the show and nothing more. That would change starting from that moment and Blake says, “I won’t forget that day.”
Gwen asked if she and Blake could talk privately later. “I thought it was going to be another one of those things-are-going-to-be-OK talks,” Blake shared. However, what he didn’t know was that Gwen was also in the midst of her own divorce from Bush front man Gavin Rossdale after 20 years of marriage and three children together.
Blake says that when the two had that private conversation he didn’t know what Gwen was going through herself so, “I thought it was going to be another one of those things-are-going-to-be-OK talks.” Gwen didn’t reveal any specifics about her won divorce, “because we didn’t know each other at the time, but she said, ‘I’m going through something very similar to what you’re going through. I understand. And I hate it.’ That’s kind of how our friendship and bond started, that day.”
The supportive friendship grew and changed with time Blake explained, “It went from that, to checking in on each other once a week through email — ‘This s–t happened to me, what happened to you?’ — to maybe three times a week, then every day, to ‘Hey, here’s my phone number if you ever want to text.’ Next thing I know, I wake up and she’s all I care about, and I’m wondering if she feels the same about me.”
What has his relationship with Gwen meant to Blake? “Gwen saved my life. Who else on earth could understand going through a high-profile divorce from another musician? You can’t even imagine the similarities in our divorces.”
There is so much more about Blake that you can learn from the Billboard cover story here.
Blake will be bringing his concert tour to the Peoria Civic Center Thursday, September 15th. Get concert and ticket details here or by picking up a copy of the magazine from newsstands everywhere now.
Season 11 of The Voice with Blake Shelton will premiere Monday, September 19th, just four days after his Peoria concert.
By: Buck Stevens
