Brantley Gilbert Recalls What It Was Like To Meet Blake Shelton
By Kelly Fisher
January 4, 2023
Brantley Gilbert acknowledged that “everybody has horror stories” about meeting people — especially other artists — in the entertainment industry.
Blake Shelton, however, was a different story.
Gilbert recently spoke about his experience meeting Shelton, who teamed up with Gilbert, along with Vince Gill, on one of the “Bottoms Up” singer’s latest songs, “Heaven By Then.” Gilbert previously said he never knew how much he wanted to collaborate with Shelton and Gill until he finally had the opportunity.
“Any time you meet somebody in this business, especially as another artist, you never know what to expect. Everybody has horror stories and great stories about different people, you know. And I will say that Blake Shelton has been just solid,” Gilbert said in a statement shared by his record label. “I think a lot of him. He’s never been anything but kind and welcoming. We played a show with him one night, and there really wasn’t any time, and he sent somebody to get me and made time for me to come back and say hey. And Gwen [Stefani] was back there with him. I’ve never met her, I got to meet her. And I don’t know that you’ll meet anybody that’ll say a whole lot of negative stuff about Blake.”
“Heaven By Then” is one of 10 tracks on So Help Me God, Gilbert’s latest album that marks his first collection to release in three years. A “mixtape” in the making, So Help Me God released years after his last album because he’s “a perfectionist,” Gilbert previously explained. He added: “In the past, my albums were almost direct reflections, direct chapters of my life. Whatever I’d gone through since I wrote the last record would make its way onto the new album. There’s still some of that with So Help Me God since I’m a cowriter on all the songs – it’s been three years since the last release and a lot of life lived. But I feel like this album is more of a mixtape of great songs. We wanted to put songs that sounded good together, but also songs that covered a wide variety of genre influences. There’s a lot of different songwriting styles on the album. We’re super excited about it, and I can’t wait for BG Nation to hear what we’ve been working on.”
So Help Me God also included fan-favorite tracks and collaborations like “Rolex On A Redneck” with Jason Aldean, “The Worst Country Song Of All Time” with Toby Keith and HARDY, “Son Of The Dirty South” with Jelly Roll, “Gone But Not Forgotten,” and “How To Talk To Girls.”
Now, Gilbert is gearing up for new music this year, planning a trip to Texas in February to start writing more. He’s “already been working on it [the next record] since we finalized the track list for this one. I’m always workin’ on what’s next… There’s a lot in front of us. I got a lot of work to do.”