February 3, 2026 • 54 mins
Blake Shelton sits down with Bobby and talks The Voice—how he got the call, why he worried it might be “selling out,” and how it changed his level of fame. He also gets real about what it’s like being a different kind of famous, needing thick skin, and why he’s happiest keeping life simple. Plus, Blake breaks down his perfect day: the ranch with Gwen and the boys, and weather he’d take at 5 degrees over 100.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey, thanks man, thanks for hanging out absolutely buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Yeah, good to see you too.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I like to start off the show with because I
never want to ask a question that you get asked
all the time, because you'll be sitting the whole time thinking,
I know he's gonna ask me about this.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Okay, So the three questions you get asked the most,
what's number one?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh man, that is a good question. That's a tough one.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I get asked about Gwenn a lot.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, you know, let's go.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
But I feel like it's not it's from the standpoint of,
you know, the questions that you get, like, so, what
are you guys doing for Thanksgiving this year? And does
Gwyn cook or you know, it's they're innocent enough, you know,
but it's it's just probably whatever the whoever's boss that
go get this stuff from him so we can put
it in the you know, the life section of the magazine.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Okay, so it's Gwyn Cook, let me ask it.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
She loves the cook, all right.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
What's the question? Number two? You get asked the most?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And I don't know, I kind of blackout during these
these interviews.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
And it's like drunk or board.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Uh, it depends on what time of day, I guess.
I mean, I don't do a lot of interviews unless
we have a you know, a project or something coming.
That's why this one's this one's fun to do with
you this time, because you know, I really I mean,
I'm sure the record labels I don't say that, but
I'm really not like promoting any We're not launching anything
(01:46):
right now. You know, we're kind of in between projects,
and so I thought it'd be fun just to come
here and like actually have a visit with you, you know
what I mean? Okay, then still quit asking me such
tough Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, this was supposed to be the softball part of
the interview. Oh god, Greg, because I figured it was Gwynn.
I figured it was Mullet.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I'm not good at till like top ten things, you
know what I mean. They even said, like, oh, bother you.
They want to know, like what your all time top
favorite albums of all time, you know, And I've been
thinking about that for like three days and now going,
oh my god, what are they? I don't even really know.
I finally decided on some but uh, that was even
(02:25):
hard for me to remember. I don't. I don't remember
stuff that well, you know I did.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
You're worried about this a little too much, I guess,
so I guess. So, Okay, the mullet, When did you
cut it? This is gonna be the second question I
figured you get asked all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, the mullet. It was was an evolving change because
it went from what you know, we all considered in
know what an actual mullet is, which would have been
I had that for the better part of my teenage
years and on end of my twenties. But I really
(03:01):
only had the actual mullet for the release of my
first single, which was in two thousand and one. And
because I caught at the time, I didn't realize that
mullets are cool again now, I guess. But back then
when I had him, they weren't cool anymore. You know,
(03:22):
it was like that phase it already ran out, and
no one told me so. My first single came out
with a video and there I was with a mullet,
and by that time, Tracy Lawrence and Alan Jackson, everybody
had cut their mullet and it was just like me
and Neil McCoy left at that point that had him
and so when I caught so much grief about it.
(03:43):
There was a guy in Nashville that had a morning
radio show named Carl P. Mayfield. He was gone before
you came to town, and he would go on his morning
show and just I mean just whether I was a
part of the show or I'd be in my truck
driving and he would play my song, Oh, there's the
(04:05):
worst new mullet in country music, you know. And so
I started thinking, well, I got to do something about this.
But I was stubborn enough that I thought, Okay, I'm
not gonna cut I'm not gonna let them tell me
to cut my mullet, but I will grow out the
rest of my hair and just have all long hair,
you know. So that way they didn't win. I didn't
(04:25):
cut my mullet. I just I grew the rest of
it out to go with it.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
The third question I thought people would ask all the
time is how did you get on the Voice.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I got on the Voice because well, I had done
a couple of shows before The Voice, one Nashville Star.
I did one season of Nashville Star, which was on
the USA Network, which was under the umbrella of NBC,
and then I did another NBC show called Clash of
(04:59):
the Choirs, which was just one they did one season.
It was like one week holiday special they did and
it was me and Nick Lache and Kelly Rowland and
Michael Bolton and Patti LaBelle and we had to like
coach and be the leaders of these choirs. And it
(05:20):
was like an America voted on whose choir did the best,
and it was like this series lasted a week, so
it was every night, and it was during the holidays,
so it's like a you know, a Christmas themed thing,
and that when I did that, I I certainly was
at best of at best of, you know, probably a
(05:40):
B level artist in country music. And but as you know,
you get on TV and all of a sudden, you know,
you just are in front of so many new people
and and so some executives at NBC I had caught
their attention, So then I was on NBC's radar. But
(06:03):
that's still the only part of the reason I was
asked to be on the Voice. The reason I really
got on the Voice is because Riba turned it down
and I was being managed by Narvel Blackstock, who was
managing RIBA and was married to her at the time,
and Reba said, you know, she didn't want to. The
only other show like that was American Idol at the time,
(06:25):
and that was back when you know, I think Simon
and those guys would kind of, you know, give people
a hard time if they sucked, and and so Reba
didn't want to be that, you know, on television, which
is understandable and and so and even though that's not
even what we did on the Voice, Reba just passed
(06:46):
on reality television basically, I think. And they and they said, well,
if she's going to do, who else do you manage
there that we might be interested in? And he mentioned, well,
have this new kid, Blake Shelton, and it rang a bell.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
With clash of the choir's Blakeshells Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I think that was actually said, like, well, you talking
about the guy from that choir, that's right, and so
it at least there they're like, oh, well, we do
know who that is, you know. And and at that
point the offer came in. You know, they had had
already Christina Aguilera signed up, and that's all I knew
of at the time, but I I I pushed back
(07:29):
a little bit at first, and finally I think, you know,
somebody in my life was like, who who do you
think you are? Like, you got this opportunity to go
be on the show with Christina Aguilera, Like it's Christina Aguilera,
She's doing it. Then who the hell are you to
say no? You know, and it's like, you're right, okay,
I don't know what I'm thinking. And so we did it.
(07:50):
And I remember that was when I met Adam and Silo,
and Adam and I quickly became friends. We had the
same kind of sense of humor, you know, and we
both thought the show was just the dumbest, the dumbest
sell out thing you know, we could ever do, especially
Adam was super worried about that part of it, you know,
(08:10):
like looking like a sellout or whatever. But we both thought,
you know, it probably wouldn't last anyway, and so let's
let's do it and have some fun. And then the
next thing we knew, you know, it became huge part
of our lives. You know, that changed changed my life forever.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Did you find that it helped your music a ton?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yes, without helped my music, meaning you know, just put
it in front of so many more people. And so
when I say it helped my music. It helped it
sell and helped my momentum, you know at country radio.
(08:51):
You know, all of a sudden, it was like I
had momentum that I'd never had before, you know, which
was crazy to me, you know, because I remember before
The Voice, you know, we would release a single and
I was very inconsistent as far as you know, what
worked and what didn't work at radio. You can it's
(09:16):
fun to think about it now. It's like, you know,
it came out with Austin, which is this huge record,
and then my follow up was this song that barely
cracked the top twenty, and then we came with Old
Red and got a little momentum back, and then had
a few misses. And it wasn't until The Voice that
you know that we had a run there probably ten years,
(09:38):
or maybe not quite ten years, maybe seven or eight years.
It's just every single we put out was of it
just automatically. The people didn't even listen to it, they
just put it on the air. You know. I was
just had that kind of momentum for a minute there.
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Was it weird to.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Be a different level of famous because for me, when
I started to do television, it was just different kinds
of people that never recognized me. We're now coming up
to me. But you was even at a different level.
Did you start to notice that in your life?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, it was the It was immediate, you know, as
soon as the voice started to air. And there's a
difference in being on TV and then being on.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
A hit TV, short primetime hit show. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, And it was all of a sudden like, oh, now,
I know how if you don't have thick skin, I
know how people lose their minds and you know, freak out.
And these can't probably handle that kind of scrutiny, that
that many eyeballs, that much attention, you know. And I
(10:48):
liked it. At first. I thought it was I thought
it was fun. I couldn't believe, like, you know, there
was a paparazzi guy waiting outside our gate and and
or try to go through an airport or whatever. These
people were follow taking pictures and stuff. And and at
the time, you know, right when I did the voice
is also right when Miranda and I got married, and
(11:09):
so there was this extra layer of it just kept
piling on more reasons to have more attention, you know,
And and then it became you know, not so fun.
After a few years of that, and you kind of
revert starting not leaving the house as much, and you
reconsider like, well, I wanted to go to the store,
(11:29):
but not today, you know, just send somebody else to
go get whatever you need. And then and then now
I've kind of stayed that guy.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
You've stayed ever.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Since then, Yeah, how do you like living in California?
I don't particularly love living here. It's not California. I
don't love living in a city at all, you know.
And even though now pretty much all of that attention's
gone away out you know, old news now, Uh, but
(12:03):
I've still kind of stayed that guy. You know. When
I'm here, I just stay in the house pretty much
and and uh, I watch Calling cal Herd in the morning.
That gets me through till about you know, the half
of the day, and then the kids get on from
school and we mess around and that's about it. Now.
When I'm in back in Oklahoma, which is you know,
(12:24):
where I stay probably you know the other half of
the time pretty much.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's you have avoid taxes here.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
No, I'm fifty one percent there, That's what I'm saying, Like,
you want to live there? A little er about that. Yeah,
but uh, that's where I don't even feel like myself
until I'm there, you know, just being out on the ranch.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And how much land do you have? I there?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I think now it's about nine thousand acres total, you know,
I've had. The reason I'm not sure is because you know,
over the years, if something makes sense and it comes
for sale, I'll try to it touches the ranch. I
try to you know, try to get that bought, you know.
And so there's been a couple of little parcels and
(13:12):
and but I think it's right around nine thousand acres.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Did you watch Ralph Emery growing up as a kid?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
That did me too all the time, and we were
just you know, talking about television, like I watched TNN,
which is the Nashville Network, which doesn't exist anymore, but
I would watch Ralph Emery and the Puppet, and.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I think that he was Nashville.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Now, well TNN is what I remember.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I just said, no, there's the name it in his
show was Nashville now, I think on TNN. And then
when he went away, it became Crook and Chase and
they had primetime Country.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
And it's fun talking to those guys too, because I
remember just watching Crook and Chase introduced music videos and
artists to me. Like I remember when Little Big Town
had like Tornado.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Oh, I watched.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Crook and Chase introduced me to Tornado. But like, that's
what I watched with my grandma a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It was. That's how I got, you know, to love
the Opry.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, was were you still living in Arkansas?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I was, yeah, and my grandma is who would either
have me listen to the Opry because an AM radio,
that thing would travel one thousand miles that night. And
then we would watch Oh so you would listen to
six fifty it would come through at night.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
So we would listen to it and it had it
definitely had a run on TENN as well, and so
we would watch it a bunch. And then we watched
Ralph Emery and the Puppet. I love the Puppet.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
When I was a kid, it was.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
A shotgun red Yeah, I love the Puppet.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
And then Crook and Chase. When you were in Oklahoma,
did you have Is that what you watched? How is
that how you got Nashville?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah? For me, it was I would come home from
school and I would flip channels back and forth between
TENN and CMT. That was the only two back then,
you know, Uh, and I would record. I would just
put a video tape in and record, like if the
(14:57):
video tape was four hours, I would record four hours
worth of CMT and and like leave the house and
hopes that whatever video that I was was my favorite
at the time, I would catch during that block of
time and I would sit there and when I get
home and fast forward like on play to see if
you know, oh, there's Kelly Willis. Finally I got the
(15:18):
Kelly Willis video or you know, whatever it was at
the time, or Mark, Mark Cauley or whoever I was,
you know, a huge fan of at that moment. And
and uh, it was that's where I learned. You know,
CMT used to play the video and at the end
they would show the credits and most of the time,
it seemed like that period of time they would show
(15:39):
who the songwriters were. And then I started getting really
interested in that and into your question. That's where I
really started getting this, Oh, this is a there's a
community in Nashville that's putting all this together. Like between
ten N and CMT, I started figuring that stuff out.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You know, did you play music as a kid, because
I was looking some stuff up because I feel like
I know pretty much all the stuff that you would
normally talk about. But I saw an award that you
got at sixteen years old that was called like that.
It was some Oklahoma award that I'd never heard of.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, do you know what that was called?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah? It was the Denbo Diamond Award. What it is? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
And I couldn't figure out what it was.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
They just said known for his Oklahoma's and or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
What is that award? Is that music?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It was talent. It was a talent competition. There was
a talent statewide talent competition called Oklahoma Kids. And you know,
it's funny because now I see how these young kids,
you know, make a name for themselves and become, you know,
(16:47):
successful artists now basically through social media as far as
I can tell, which is awesome. You know, whatever way
makes it happen is what it is. Back then, man,
nobody really knew like how do you make it? How
do you get on CMT? Like where is this? Where
do I apply? You know? And really the only thing
(17:11):
anybody knew was, well, you got to move to Nashville.
Well what do you do before that, you know, especially
if you're you know, a kid in school, but you
love country music. And for me, you know, the key
things that happened for me was my mom knew I
loved to sing, and she was all about you know,
(17:32):
pageants or any kind of a talent competition or what.
She's ate that stuff up, you know. So I'd be
singing in my bedroom all the time as a little kid,
and I remember she started entering me into talent shows
and things and then anything pageants first and because they
had a part where you could sing, and as is
(17:53):
before karaoke tapes, and so I'd be singing, you know,
old time rock and roll over the actual wreck, just
trying to slycs out a louder than Bob Seeger, you know,
our cat scratch fever was. But that was my other specialty.
It's basically whatever records my brother had and and so, uh, anyway,
(18:15):
she would sign me up for just about anything going
on in ad Oklahoma that there was going to be
a band, and she would just try to get me
on these things. And eventually she got me uh hooked
up with They had a little local opry type show
there in Ate, Oklahoma called the Mcswayne Theater. They'd have
(18:37):
local people come sing, you know, every other weekend and
play with the house band. And through that I had
met other people, you know, I met There was a
couple in Nashville named Mike and Angie Stafford who was
plugged into this Oklahoma kids thing and they said, man,
you should, we should, you know, get you involved in this.
(18:58):
It's like I say, white comp you could win, You
could probably win this thing. We think you're good enough
to win. And so I went and entered this competition
and it was like kids doing you know, magic tricks
to a lot of dancing, a lot of singers, a
lot of like musical type performances. And I was, as
(19:18):
far as I can remember, the only kid that walked
out there. And I sang the River by Garth Brooks,
and I sang if I could Bottle This Up by
Paul over Street and I won this this whole thing,
you know, and it was like I won twelve hundred
dollars and I still have this little the Dinbo Diamond Award,
(19:43):
which was an actual like pen that said, and it
had a little tiny diamond on it or whatever, and uh,
you know, and looking back on that, it seemed like
it was a big deal at the time, but what
it really was was a confidence booster for me. Like man,
and I did that, you know, maybe I maybe I
(20:04):
might have a shot at something. You know.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
May think had you not one, you possibly wouldn't have
moved to Nashville.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Uh maybe, you know, because it's one thing if your
if your mom and dad tell you how good you
are at something, you know, but when you have some
people who don't know you that are really judging you
on your talent, and they and you and they say
you're good, then maybe I wouldn't have moved. Maybe I
(20:31):
wouldn't have kept pursuing it. But you know, I won
that thing. I won month like money, I got money
for singing, like what, you know. I remember a couple
of times I kept that twelve hundred dollars in like
a jar in the in the cabinet. And my dad
and I lived in an apartment in Ate, Oklahoma, and
I remember a couple times he said, hey, man, can
(20:51):
I borrow one hundred bucks? I pay you back? And
I remember, like, oh, I leaned on my dad a
hundred bucks, Like what you know, and it was just
like it kind of just helped me to start realizing, man,
it's time to start becoming a man and figure out
what I'm gonna do with my life. And I really
like how that felt. I was sixteen or seventeen, and like,
(21:15):
all right, let's go with this country music thing for
a while.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Did you try that in Oklahoma for a while before
you moved.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Like, play any sort of restaurants or bars where you
could make twenty bucks a night or something.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Well, the McSwain Theater that I was talking about, that
guy would give me. His name was Paul Offered and
and my friends Larry and Carol Large they kind of
helped run the band and stuff. But Paul would give me,
I think forty bucks or something every time I sang.
And you know which was I was in high school,
(21:45):
Like hell, you know, I had friends that were delivering
papers and stuff, not making that much money, you know,
and so yeah, I would get paid to do little
things here and there.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
What was it like when you moved Inshville and everything's elevated?
Was that intimidating or inspiring?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
It was horrifying to me because in Ada, you know,
even just as a high school kid. I you know,
I was in the newspaper all the time, and people
knew who I was. They would see me in come,
say high or whatever, just because I'd kind of made
a name for myself in Pontatock County, Oklahoma. And when
I went to Nashville, nobody obviously knew how I was
(22:25):
and really didn't care, you know. And I'd never felt
that in my life at any level of like just
just being you know, ignored. You know. Luckily, when I
moved to Nashville, I had met a lady named may
Burn Axton who was from Ada, who they had brought
(22:46):
back to give her this award, like a lifetime Achievement
award at that mcswaing Theater because she had written Heartbreak
Hotel for Elvis and her son was Hoyd Axton, the
actor and singer song and he came and it was
I got a chance to meet them. And she told
me that night, she goes, well, if you ever moved
to Nashville, call me up and I don't introduce you
(23:10):
or try to help you anyway I can. And that's
I moved to Nashville. And the next day I called her.
I just blind called her called her and said, I'm
in town, you know, And she goes, well, you are
you working? And I go, no, I just I'm not
even eighteen yet.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
You have twelve hundred bucks of my name. Well, I
love when I drove my dack.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
It's a long drawn out of that. Uh. And she said, well,
I have some things that I need done around my house.
I'll pay you to come work paint my house and stuff.
I've got a family reunion coming up and I want
the place to look good. And so that's what I did.
For like the first two weeks. I moved to Nashville.
Painted Maybourne Acton's house and you know her Hoyt was there.
(23:53):
He was living in his tour bus in her driveway
at the time. I don't know if it's where he lived,
but that's where he was staying. He wouldn't stay in
her house. And I remember I would go and sit
on the curb and I'd go to Jack in the
Box or whatever and get something to eat for lunch.
And one day I was sitting on the curve there
(24:13):
and he opened the bus door and I couldn't believe it,
Like I was. My favorite movie as a kid was Gremlins.
And so this is a guy from Gremlins like standing
there and he goes, he goes, hey, boy, come on
up here. And so I went up on his bus
and and uh, and he just talked like he just
(24:34):
wanted to talk, you know, and and uh. He was
a chain smoker. And he was just the coolest person
I had ever seen or met, Like he was just
like not even a real person to me, like he
was from the movie. Like I couldn't believe it. And
I told him that day I said, well, okay, you know,
(24:57):
like I've heard to go back to work. I said,
are you going to be here tomorrow? And he goes, yeah,
I'll be here, and I go, well, tomorrow's my birthday.
I turning eighteen tomorrow. And so the next day, same thing.
He invited me up on his bus and he said
what kind of music are you gonna make? You know?
And I told him who my people were I looked
(25:20):
up to, and he said, well, listen to this song.
And he started tapping. He didn't have a guitar, he
just started tapping on the table in his bus and
he sang old Red to me, and my mind was blown,
like what is this song like? And you can imagine
it coming from Hotz's voice, you know, it's big, deep voice.
(25:42):
It was just mesmerized, and I didn't think I would
ever hear the song again. I didn't even know what
it was or where it came from or anything. And
then he went back into his back of his bus
and he came back out and he gave me this
knife that was like this. It's like this, I'll still
have it, and he told me a story. Well first
(26:03):
he just told me the story about the knife, about
the guy that made it out of some railroad tracks,
and he gave it to me from my eighteenth birthday,
and he's a happy birthday, you know. And so I
got the knife on my eighteenth birthday and I was
given what went on to be arguably my signature song,
(26:24):
maybe the most impactful song of my career, within two
weeks of moving to Nashville. On my I still have
the knife. Yeah, that's I's got. I got a bar
at my house that I have a few things that
mean something to me, and it's right there in the middle.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
We interrupt this interview to bring you a message from
our sponsor, and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
What did your appearance, say, moved to Nashville.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
They were completely supportive of it. You know, I'm sure
deep down they thought, you know, what the hell is this?
But they also knew that I absolutely had no interest
in anything else like it unless it was fishing or hunting.
This is the only shot this kid has it something meaningful,
(27:26):
you know, And so they were very supportive of it.
And of course, especially my mom just probably thought, oh,
he's gonna make it, you know. She just didn't have
any doubt about it whatsoever. I'm not sure if my
dad was it was totally that confident, you know, he
had a little more different view on it, but he
was very supportive of me going and trying it, and
(27:49):
and and so that that was really helpful too. You know.
There was never any resistance or you know, I just
felt full on support from all of my family to
go try this thing. You know, it's actually working for
you around here in our area, so maybe you can
do it.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
You know, do you remember the first time that they
where they were living, not where you were, heard your
song That actually meant you were making it, because they
heard your song randomly somewhere.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I don't I don't remember when they heard it like your.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Mom's like I heard Austin on the radio. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I'm sure that conversation happened. I think I probably beat
them to the punch to everything though, Like is anytime
something would happen, like when Austin came out, like when
it first charted on Billboard back then, you just waited
till the actual magazine came out and you're like, oh
my god, there it is at seventy two. You know,
(28:46):
first call you mom, my song is at seventy two.
It's on the chart like for real, like, oh my god,
you know. And so my constant updates probably outran any
any kind of news that they would have for for me.
You know. I remember, though I happened to be home
(29:09):
back then when your album came out. This is oh
my god. It was brutal to for me. When your
album came out, you had to go do these in
store signings like Walmart or Kmart was still a big
music seller back then, and so they sent me out
(29:30):
kind of like the radio tours. The week my album
came out, I had to go do these in store
like autograph things, and they thought it would be a
good idea to send me back through where I came from.
That would make a story. You know, he's back home
with his And that week I was happened to be
staying at my mom's house. I was in between Oklahoma
(29:51):
City and Dallas, so I got to go to my
mom's for a day in between. And that day their
label called me and said Austin had gone number one
at country radio. And of course it was just like
I couldn't have been at a better place with my
friends and family and and you know, it was just unbelievable.
(30:12):
Like newspapers that I had grown up looking at as
a kid, like the Daily Oklahoma, the Tulsa World, Like
people were bringing to my autograph signing there and Ate Oklahoma,
Like I was on the cover of those newspapers, and
it was just everything, like like when you're talking about
your dreams coming true, Like it was just like that
(30:33):
for me. Like after seven years in Nashville, the song
got on the radio, I was on the cover of
the newspaper. Song went.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
You know, you went from two weeks working to seven years.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
It took that long with with my attraction a little tractions.
You get close a couple times before like you got
a deal, like were you ever almost there?
Speaker 2 (30:52):
The only person from the executive record label side that
I only got close twice, and it was the same
guy both times, and it was Doug Johnson. I had
a I had gotten a meet a chance to meet
Doug Johnson when he ran Epic Records or he was
(31:16):
an R. I don't know what he did at Epic
an R or something. And I went in and I
got to plan, you know, my tape, and I think
I might have even played him something on the guitar.
He said, Man, I think you got something. He goes,
I want to think about this. I think you I
(31:37):
like this, you know. And so for like a week
I was dying like for my phone to ring, like
and finally he called like a week later, and he
just said, you know, I just don't think you're ready.
I think I want you to keep coming to see me,
but I don't think you're ready yet. And he took
(31:57):
maybe one or two other meetings with me, and nothing
ever happened. And then a few years later I met
Bobby Braddock, who who strongly believed in me, and he
went and re produced like three tracks on me, one
being old Red and a song called all Over Me,
(32:21):
and I can't remember the third one. And he went
to every record label in Nashville and pitched me, and
he went to at that time, Doug Johnson had moved
over and was taken over a Giant Records, and he
had a meeting with Doug Johnson said I want to
play this new kid and handed in Missus Blake Shelton,
and Doug went, oh my god, that's the kid. I
(32:43):
remember him. And I remember they called like a couple
of days later and said I was you know. Doug said,
I was right, you just needed some time. I want
to sign you to Giant Records. And of course attorney
at the times like, well, we'll see about that, and
I was like, no, we're not going to see about it.
(33:04):
I have been in Nashville all these years. I'm signing
this record deal, you know. And and so uh it
was four years though, I think three or four years
after I signed before they we ever released any music.
And so that was that was the same kind of
purgatory as the first half of not being signed. But
(33:27):
you know, it's getting the record deal. Was when I
signed the record I remember I went and met Bobby
and I drove there. Used to be a restaurant in
Nashville called Naushville, and we went and met her there
to tell her, all right, we decided to we want
to we want to sign with Giant Records, you know.
And that was the first day that I ever felt
(33:49):
like I belonged in Nashville. I felt like I had
a place, Like I didn't feel like a cling on
driving down Music Row, you know, just beating on doors
and being a pain in everybody's ass, and you know,
just I just felt like I belong here now, like
I really have a place on Music Row.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Now, you know, did you ever think you'd go home?
Did you ever think you quit?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:15):
There any instance way, like I don't know if this
is for me anymore.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
There was always yeah. And it started happening when my
friends that I graduated high school with were now graduating
college and there I was still like, you know, hanging
out in Nashville and I but every time that I
almost gave up, something would happen. There would always be
(34:39):
some little hey, I heard so, and so you know,
they dropped, they dropped an artist, and they they are looking.
You know, there would always be some little glimmer of hope.
You know. I remember I got a meeting one time
with you know, Byron Gallimore, which is from ten. Huh,
don't know?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
From ten?
Speaker 2 (35:00):
From Tim McGraw. Yeah, tim McGraw's producer. I got and
Byron would kill me, but I don't care. It's been
long enough now I can tell this story. He'll probably
give me crap about it. But I had a meeting
with Byron and I played him a bunch of songs
that I had written or co written. It was of
my demos, and I even played him something on the guitar,
(35:21):
and it was kind of like he goes, man, but
he didn't run a record label or anything, but he
was probably with Tim McGraw back then, the hottest producer
in Nashville, and so it was as close to getting
a record if Byron was going to produce you as
somebody would sign you, you know. And he said, man,
I really like these songs, and I like your voice.
(35:44):
He goes, but you just don't really have like that
that bottom end, that bass bass that you need, you know,
to like you. He goes, how old are you?
Speaker 5 (35:54):
You know?
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Said man, I'm twenty or however old I was, and
he goes, yeah, I mean it's want to be there.
It'll be there. You know. You just need more wear
and tear on your voice, and your voice just isn't
quite developed. And he goes, this is what he's gonna
kill me about. He goes, man, you do you smoke
or you drink whiskey or anything? And I go, well,
(36:16):
I don't smoke. I said, I drink if I can
get it, you know. He goes, well, he goes, maybe
if he smoked or something, and I man, I left
his office and I went straight there. Used to be
that Virginia's market. They might still be there that we
called it the Murder Mark. I drove straight there and
I bought a pack of it. Is right when Marlborough
(36:39):
Ultra lights came out, I thought, man, I can probably
smoke one of them. They're probably not too bad. And
I bought a pack of Marlborough Ultra Lights. And for
three months I sat on my back porch over by
Harding Mall. I had a little apartment over there, and
I try to smoke these cigarettes, and man, I would
cough and gag. And I finally got to where I
(37:01):
could smoke them, you know. And then but I don't
know how, because my dad smoked. He was addicted to
cigarettes his whole life, but most of his life, and
I never got addicted to him. Finally, one day I
was like, man, this is stupid, Like what am I doing?
You know? I never I guess I wasn't doing it right,
but I I tried it. I tried it. Byron. I
(37:22):
guess eventually I got old enough that I had enough bottle.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Me end developed.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Huh, low end developed naturally enough. I guess. Let that
be a lesson Byron.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
You know you're doing the residency in Vegas, which is
super cool.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
I have a personal question about that. Do they send
a plane to get you every show or do you
stay there?
Speaker 2 (37:47):
No? I just have my own plane. You know, I
don't have the Garth. I don't have the.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Gard's bigger flex if you have your own plane.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I guess. So it's just it's pretty expensive. Yeah. I
always heard about it, we all as as country artists.
I remember when Garth got that that residency that he
did at the Wind, when that was end of the plane,
and that was before residencies were like the thing to do,
and it was like, what's he gonna do? What they
gave him? What they gave him?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
The plane, the end, they gave him the pla R.
Steve Wind gifted him the plane.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, he set the bar too high right off the bat.
You know, I don't I don't know if anybody's arrived
at that Garth level ever again. You know, the Caesar's
is like, hey man, we'll pay you, but you figure
out how to get your ass hero, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
So I went to the Garth Residency.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
I haven't never heard anything, but how incredible it Well,
it was the acoustic one.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Right, it was acoustic, and he would play songs that
influenced him into a song that kind of made sense
after it. So he'd play like a James Brown song.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
He played a song from the Eagles like a verse
in a chorus and then going to one of his
songs versus chorus, which then it was hour and forty
five minutes. You know so fast that those shows are
really fun though, because it's massive artists like yourself, but
you're closer to them as you then you normally would
be at an arena or a big amphitheater.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Is that fun for you to actually be closer to people.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
I love to be able to to interact. You know,
the one thing that I never truly loved about touring arenas,
and when we got to those kind of size of venues,
you know, I mean, that's your dream, that's the ultimate,
like look at me, you know, but it was never
as fun to me. And I learned early on, man,
(39:33):
you can't have the kind of moments that you have
at the coliseum at Caesar's Palace in an arena because
people don't know who you're talking to. So if you
try to like have a moment with somebody in the audience,
you really lose. At least I never figured out, you
(39:53):
really lose the arena at that moment. You know, you
so everything you do, you really have to play everything
over the top big to everybody. You know. That's how
I've had to, you know, get through and feel like,
you know, I did a good job, you know. But
my passion, what I love is when I would play
(40:13):
the bars or you know, a small theater or do
something acoustic and and have those moments with somebody specific
in the audience or a group that you can tell
is a birthday party or a bridesmaid party or something,
and have a moment because in the venue that size,
everybody's in on whatever's happening, you know, and it just
(40:37):
for me, that's the most fun to have that kind
of a connection. I'm more afraid of an audience if
I can't have that kind of connection.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
You know, Hang tight, the Bobby Cast will be right back.
Well them back to the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Yeah, those shows are always super fun because you're just closer.
You just you can just again because only massive artists
play those the Vegas residencies. But then it's kind of
the opposite of what you're used to because then you're
super close to a massive artist.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, and so that that's fine. Is this your second
round doing them though? Right?
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Do you stay at the casino or do you get an airbnb?
Or do you just go home?
Speaker 2 (41:26):
I usually just go home. I mean it's just like
thirty minutes.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Do you ever go to the casino?
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Do you ever go to the casino and gamble?
Speaker 5 (41:33):
No?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Did you ever have a gambling phase?
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Are you still in that gambling phase? Just not then?
Speaker 2 (41:38):
I wasn't. I wouldn't just call it a gambling phase.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
I'd call it a poker I had one of those two. Yeah,
Big I used to fly out to Vegas all the time,
playing tournaments.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Just love to play the tournaments and stuff, but not
as I don't bet on sports or any of that stuff,
you know, outside of a stupid fantasy football league, you know.
But uh no, I'll never go in there any more.
Just I feel like, if I'm going to step out
when I'm in Las Vegas, I'll go over to Old
Red and jump on stage and sing something, you know,
(42:09):
and feel like I'm getting, you know, getting to do
something fun and you know, showing my face and you know,
it's always you know, a good idea, you know. When
I have these places to poke my head in once
in a while, I feel like, because you know, I
think it's important for people to feel like it really
is somewhere that I would come to, and so I
(42:31):
do try to go to them and when I can.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Isn't it crazy how all that happened.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
You're you meet somebody in your hometown and she's like,
move to Nashville. But then while you're living in Nashville,
her son takes you in, plays you a song, and
then you record that song in your first few songs,
and then it becomes a had for.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
You and then you named Bart. But all that because
she happened to be receiving an award in the small
town that you grew up in, and you were there
that night.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I look back, man, and I think, you know, I
wonder if if one thing, to go back to your
question about that contest, I want, if one thing would
have happened different, just one thing, I wonder what I'd
be sitting here today talking to you about all this.
You know, it's just amazing how things have to especially
in this business. You know, have to just absolutely just
(43:25):
line up perfectly and the right thing ends, something begins.
You know, It's it's crazy to think about, you know,
the what IF's for sure.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I've got three more questions for you if you were
to go sit down. We're an hour. What's about an hour?
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Really?
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (43:45):
What do you want to know for about anything? Anybody
wants to hear? It's just me?
Speaker 1 (43:49):
I think that's what they want about me the whole time.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Talk about you?
Speaker 3 (43:52):
All right, give me one question. Give me the three
questions you think I could ask the most?
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Were you dying to leave Arkansas?
Speaker 3 (44:01):
I knew the only way that I was going to
be successful and what I wanted to do, which was radio,
TV comedy. Is I had to leave a town to
seven hundred people. So to me, Hollywood or New York
or Nashville, that was fairy tale.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Like, it wasn't hard, It wasn't luck.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
It was really hard because I knew nobody, but I
just knew it was the only way that I was
going to have a shot. Yeah, me too, because again,
you would see TV that stuff wasn't real to me
or to you because I'm in Arkansas, You're in Oklahoma.
People in New York and LA that was so fancy
and rich in Hollywood. Yeah, none of that was real.
I when I went to Idol, because I was on
(44:38):
Idol for four years and I'd never been to California
until it was time to go for work, and that
was what a lot of those kids were going through.
That's part of the reason they hired me for that
show because the first time that I was there and
I was like, oh, I get it, and we'd be
off to the side, I'd be like, you're freaked out.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
You've never seen buildings like this. Same same with me.
So it was difficult, but I knew I had to
do it.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Yeah, that's a question one, all right.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Question two? The baby are you are you. Are you
afraid right now? Are you excited? Are you scared?
Speaker 3 (45:15):
The easy answer is, yeah, of course I'm scared. The
hard answer is that I never had a dad. I
don't have a model, which like, I didn't really have parents.
My mom was an addict, you know, so she was
in and out. My grandma raised me a lot.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
For me.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
The part that's super scary is that I've not seen
successful parenting, so it's totally unknown. It's like we're going
to drop you off on Mars. That's what this feels like.
So I'm excited about it because I think the part
of me can heal through that version of it.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
But yeah, I don't know. I know what's gonna Well.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
The one thing that you know is you're going to
be there.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
So but like my dad left me when I was
five years old, how do you leave that? And is
that genetically in me where I'm just like I should
leave like that stuff. That's the part where that I
wrestle with.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, I hear you, but I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
I don't either, because I have an awesome wife. Yeah,
but yeah, that's that's the answer to that one. And
your final question, because I have like two more questions
for you.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
My final question for you is what are your other
two questions for me?
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Great?
Speaker 3 (46:24):
Thank you, good question. Glad you asked. I want you
to do this one through five. Give me your favorite
Blake Shelton songs one through five.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Number one, Well, I guess, I guess Austin is probably
my number one favorite. You know, I've gone through such
a love hate relationship with that song.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Did you not like to play it for a while?
Speaker 2 (46:56):
It will only because like I was just so sick
of it, like are you kidding me? Like, I mean,
it's the it was brought me to the game, and
and and so about five or six years after that
song came out, you know, when I first started performing,
(47:20):
we would do Austin twice a night. We would like
do it like early in the set, because that's the
only reason anybody's at this bar. And then we would
like do it at the end because people showed up
that weren't there when I first did it. You know,
So doing that one song twice a night for at
least two years, you know, because I don't have anything
(47:43):
else you may wanted to hear. And we were so
excited when Old Red started becoming a hit it was like,
oh my god, we have two songs, and so I
just got so burnt out on it and and it
but I never stopped doing it, you know. It was
just like, oh gosh, we got it. Here we go,
you know, and now I'm back to man. What a song?
Speaker 5 (48:07):
Like?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
What a just an incredible song that those two that
they wrote, and and it just stands. It seems like
it stood the test of time, you know, and like
people you know, come to the show and I could
tell it takes them back to a moment like in
their life when when that song was a hit. And
(48:29):
so there's that. I think a song that I don't
perform anymore in concert, which is probably one of the
most well written songs that I've ever recorded, is called
the Baby.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
It's number two on your Lesson.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Yeah, because it it's just the most honest and heartbreaking
lyric like it's like the stereotype of country music being
the sad. I mean, it is it. It is the
epitome of that. I stopped doing it in my shows
(49:04):
because it would bring like you'd be you'd finally get
the place going, you know, if you're playing an amphitheater
or an arena and then you play the baby and
literally like people want to leave. They're like, this is
the worst feeling I've had all night, Like this is terrible.
I I don't want to hear this, you know, And
(49:24):
so I just stopped doing it. And and but the
song was you know, it was a it was a
big record for us, And it's weird to have a
record like that that you just you're just afraid that
if you do it live, you're just gonna kill the show.
Uh and uh. And then I would put old that
would be number two. I'd put Old Redd at three. Uh.
(49:46):
And there's a song that I had out years ago
called who Are You? And I'm not looking that. I
just think so just a beautiful song and I just
love the idea of that song. And I don't know,
maybe mine would be You was another record that we
(50:07):
had years ago that I just always thought was, uh,
you know, underrated. And these are all ballads, huh.
Speaker 3 (50:14):
Yeah, My favorite songs are all ballads too, because you
can really spend time with the lyric.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
I don't know songs that are fast. I kind of
know melodies that are fast. I don't know songs that
are fast lyrics anyway, But I listened to the baby
every night before I go to bed.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Do you really you do? Not know? I don't, but
you're just the kind of guy though you would have
some reason like yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Yeah, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
Final question for you, if you have a perfect day,
what's your perfect day?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Perfect day is in Oklahoma at the ranch. Gwen is there, uh,
and the boys are there, but the boys are doing
their own thing, Like that's what I love about the ranch, Like,
you know, that's where the kids have learned to dry,
that's where they've learned to fish then do all the stuff.
(51:01):
That's where they've learned that there's places you can go
and just be free. And they don't get that here,
you know. And so my perfect day is there with
Gwynn and the boys. And the boys are outside doing things.
You know. It makes me happy to see them just
(51:23):
out messing around. It's simple and does that sounds It's
just makes me happy, you know. And it's not hot. Yeah,
and it's not hot. I'll take you know, five degrees
over one hundred degrees.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Yeah, I'm not going to take that, but I get it. Okay,
you spent time of pairing, So give me your favorite albums.
Three favorite albums of all time? Find this is It?
Send Us on Blaze the Glory.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
Earl Thomas Connolly, Somewhere between Right and Wrong was one.
I put a lot of miles on that cassette.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Buddy, was that given to you by your mom or dad?
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Or no? I bought I bought that one. I bought
that one. That the album had been out for fifteen
years before I.
Speaker 1 (52:12):
Bought it, That's what I was asking.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah, Uh, I bought Mark Cawley's I think the name
of the album. It was the album that had some
even the Man in the Moon is crying on it.
I think it was Born in Black and White is
the name of the album.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
That was such a gem because even man in that's
such a gem.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
Yeah, that whole record, Man, it got it. I'm gonna
have to do my top five haul Over Streets Heroes
album and then I'm going to say, Travis Tritt, it's
all about to change those ones. And Sean camp had
had an album that I lived on to six?
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Was it five? Or said? Was that six?
Speaker 2 (53:02):
I think so? All right?
Speaker 1 (53:03):
You said he didn't like lists.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
That's what I mean his interview.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
And you started the interview, I don't like lists. You
demanded to do a list.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
I don't top fives or to our top ones.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Lists.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
That's a Ki's said here tomorrow and go oh all
forgot about Kelly Willis. Yeah, she's got to be in there.
I thought I was going to marry her when I
was in high school.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
You know, we used to record a video.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
And Teresa Berg I had her line through the Moon
album of Miles on that thing.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
And you're still making the list. I love it. Yeah
changed you, he changed man.
Speaker 3 (53:36):
I really appreciate the time we came out here to
see you, so I really appreciate you spending an out here. Yeah,
this is this is really cool. Uh and you guys,
we talked about it at the very beginning before Blake
got here. But it's happening at Caesar's Palace, the Residency.
Go go see it. It's awesome. He talks to every
single person in the crowd. And if he does not
talk to you, your money back. You heard it here first,
(53:56):
straight eye contact, a conversation with you or your money back.
Speaker 2 (53:59):
Like I just flashback to my instore autograph signings.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
All right, good to see you, Blake, Thank you buddy.
This has been a Bobby cast production,
Hey, thanks man, thanks for hanging out absolutely buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Yeah, good to see you too.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I like to start off the show with because I
never want to ask a question that you get asked
all the time, because you'll be sitting the whole time thinking,
I know he's gonna ask me about this.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Okay, So the three questions you get asked the most,
what's number one?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh man, that is a good question. That's a tough one.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I get asked about Gwenn a lot.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, you know, let's go.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
But I feel like it's not it's from the standpoint of,
you know, the questions that you get, like, so, what
are you guys doing for Thanksgiving this year? And does
Gwyn cook or you know, it's they're innocent enough, you know,
but it's it's just probably whatever the whoever's boss that
go get this stuff from him so we can put
it in the you know, the life section of the magazine.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Okay, so it's Gwyn Cook, let me ask it.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
She loves the cook, all right.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
What's the question? Number two? You get asked the most?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And I don't know, I kind of blackout during these
these interviews.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
And it's like drunk or board.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Uh, it depends on what time of day, I guess.
I mean, I don't do a lot of interviews unless
we have a you know, a project or something coming.
That's why this one's this one's fun to do with
you this time, because you know, I really I mean,
I'm sure the record labels I don't say that, but
I'm really not like promoting any We're not launching anything
(01:46):
right now. You know, we're kind of in between projects,
and so I thought it'd be fun just to come
here and like actually have a visit with you, you know
what I mean? Okay, then still quit asking me such
tough Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, this was supposed to be the softball part of
the interview. Oh god, Greg, because I figured it was Gwynn.
I figured it was Mullet.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I'm not good at till like top ten things, you
know what I mean. They even said, like, oh, bother you.
They want to know, like what your all time top
favorite albums of all time, you know, And I've been
thinking about that for like three days and now going,
oh my god, what are they? I don't even really know.
I finally decided on some but uh, that was even
(02:25):
hard for me to remember. I don't. I don't remember
stuff that well, you know I did.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
You're worried about this a little too much, I guess,
so I guess. So, Okay, the mullet, When did you
cut it? This is gonna be the second question I
figured you get asked all the time.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, the mullet. It was was an evolving change because
it went from what you know, we all considered in
know what an actual mullet is, which would have been
I had that for the better part of my teenage
years and on end of my twenties. But I really
(03:01):
only had the actual mullet for the release of my
first single, which was in two thousand and one. And
because I caught at the time, I didn't realize that
mullets are cool again now, I guess. But back then
when I had him, they weren't cool anymore. You know,
(03:22):
it was like that phase it already ran out, and
no one told me so. My first single came out
with a video and there I was with a mullet,
and by that time, Tracy Lawrence and Alan Jackson, everybody
had cut their mullet and it was just like me
and Neil McCoy left at that point that had him
and so when I caught so much grief about it.
(03:43):
There was a guy in Nashville that had a morning
radio show named Carl P. Mayfield. He was gone before
you came to town, and he would go on his morning
show and just I mean just whether I was a
part of the show or I'd be in my truck
driving and he would play my song, Oh, there's the
(04:05):
worst new mullet in country music, you know. And so
I started thinking, well, I got to do something about this.
But I was stubborn enough that I thought, Okay, I'm
not gonna cut I'm not gonna let them tell me
to cut my mullet, but I will grow out the
rest of my hair and just have all long hair,
you know. So that way they didn't win. I didn't
(04:25):
cut my mullet. I just I grew the rest of
it out to go with it.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
The third question I thought people would ask all the
time is how did you get on the Voice.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I got on the Voice because well, I had done
a couple of shows before The Voice, one Nashville Star.
I did one season of Nashville Star, which was on
the USA Network, which was under the umbrella of NBC,
and then I did another NBC show called Clash of
(04:59):
the Choirs, which was just one they did one season.
It was like one week holiday special they did and
it was me and Nick Lache and Kelly Rowland and
Michael Bolton and Patti LaBelle and we had to like
coach and be the leaders of these choirs. And it
(05:20):
was like an America voted on whose choir did the best,
and it was like this series lasted a week, so
it was every night, and it was during the holidays,
so it's like a you know, a Christmas themed thing,
and that when I did that, I I certainly was
at best of at best of, you know, probably a
(05:40):
B level artist in country music. And but as you know,
you get on TV and all of a sudden, you know,
you just are in front of so many new people
and and so some executives at NBC I had caught
their attention, So then I was on NBC's radar. But
(06:03):
that's still the only part of the reason I was
asked to be on the Voice. The reason I really
got on the Voice is because Riba turned it down
and I was being managed by Narvel Blackstock, who was
managing RIBA and was married to her at the time,
and Reba said, you know, she didn't want to. The
only other show like that was American Idol at the time,
(06:25):
and that was back when you know, I think Simon
and those guys would kind of, you know, give people
a hard time if they sucked, and and so Reba
didn't want to be that, you know, on television, which
is understandable and and so and even though that's not
even what we did on the Voice, Reba just passed
(06:46):
on reality television basically, I think. And they and they said, well,
if she's going to do, who else do you manage
there that we might be interested in? And he mentioned, well,
have this new kid, Blake Shelton, and it rang a bell.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
With clash of the choir's Blakeshells Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I think that was actually said, like, well, you talking
about the guy from that choir, that's right, and so
it at least there they're like, oh, well, we do
know who that is, you know. And and at that
point the offer came in. You know, they had had
already Christina Aguilera signed up, and that's all I knew
of at the time, but I I I pushed back
(07:29):
a little bit at first, and finally I think, you know,
somebody in my life was like, who who do you
think you are? Like, you got this opportunity to go
be on the show with Christina Aguilera, Like it's Christina Aguilera,
She's doing it. Then who the hell are you to
say no? You know, and it's like, you're right, okay,
I don't know what I'm thinking. And so we did it.
(07:50):
And I remember that was when I met Adam and Silo,
and Adam and I quickly became friends. We had the
same kind of sense of humor, you know, and we
both thought the show was just the dumbest, the dumbest
sell out thing you know, we could ever do, especially
Adam was super worried about that part of it, you know,
(08:10):
like looking like a sellout or whatever. But we both thought,
you know, it probably wouldn't last anyway, and so let's
let's do it and have some fun. And then the
next thing we knew, you know, it became huge part
of our lives. You know, that changed changed my life forever.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Did you find that it helped your music a ton?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yes, without helped my music, meaning you know, just put
it in front of so many more people. And so
when I say it helped my music. It helped it
sell and helped my momentum, you know at country radio.
(08:51):
You know, all of a sudden, it was like I
had momentum that I'd never had before, you know, which
was crazy to me, you know, because I remember before
The Voice, you know, we would release a single and
I was very inconsistent as far as you know, what
worked and what didn't work at radio. You can it's
(09:16):
fun to think about it now. It's like, you know,
it came out with Austin, which is this huge record,
and then my follow up was this song that barely
cracked the top twenty, and then we came with Old
Red and got a little momentum back, and then had
a few misses. And it wasn't until The Voice that
you know that we had a run there probably ten years,
(09:38):
or maybe not quite ten years, maybe seven or eight years.
It's just every single we put out was of it
just automatically. The people didn't even listen to it, they
just put it on the air. You know. I was
just had that kind of momentum for a minute there.
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Was it weird to.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Be a different level of famous because for me, when
I started to do television, it was just different kinds
of people that never recognized me. We're now coming up
to me. But you was even at a different level.
Did you start to notice that in your life?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, it was the It was immediate, you know, as
soon as the voice started to air. And there's a
difference in being on TV and then being on.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
A hit TV, short primetime hit show. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, And it was all of a sudden like, oh, now,
I know how if you don't have thick skin, I
know how people lose their minds and you know, freak out.
And these can't probably handle that kind of scrutiny, that
that many eyeballs, that much attention, you know. And I
(10:48):
liked it. At first. I thought it was I thought
it was fun. I couldn't believe, like, you know, there
was a paparazzi guy waiting outside our gate and and
or try to go through an airport or whatever. These
people were follow taking pictures and stuff. And and at
the time, you know, right when I did the voice
is also right when Miranda and I got married, and
(11:09):
so there was this extra layer of it just kept
piling on more reasons to have more attention, you know,
And and then it became you know, not so fun.
After a few years of that, and you kind of
revert starting not leaving the house as much, and you
reconsider like, well, I wanted to go to the store,
(11:29):
but not today, you know, just send somebody else to
go get whatever you need. And then and then now
I've kind of stayed that guy.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
You've stayed ever.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Since then, Yeah, how do you like living in California?
I don't particularly love living here. It's not California. I
don't love living in a city at all, you know.
And even though now pretty much all of that attention's
gone away out you know, old news now, Uh, but
(12:03):
I've still kind of stayed that guy. You know. When
I'm here, I just stay in the house pretty much
and and uh, I watch Calling cal Herd in the morning.
That gets me through till about you know, the half
of the day, and then the kids get on from
school and we mess around and that's about it. Now.
When I'm in back in Oklahoma, which is you know,
(12:24):
where I stay probably you know the other half of
the time pretty much.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's you have avoid taxes here.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
No, I'm fifty one percent there, That's what I'm saying, Like,
you want to live there? A little er about that. Yeah,
but uh, that's where I don't even feel like myself
until I'm there, you know, just being out on the ranch.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And how much land do you have? I there?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I think now it's about nine thousand acres total, you know,
I've had. The reason I'm not sure is because you know,
over the years, if something makes sense and it comes
for sale, I'll try to it touches the ranch. I
try to you know, try to get that bought, you know.
And so there's been a couple of little parcels and
(13:12):
and but I think it's right around nine thousand acres.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Did you watch Ralph Emery growing up as a kid?
Speaker 3 (13:18):
That did me too all the time, and we were
just you know, talking about television, like I watched TNN,
which is the Nashville Network, which doesn't exist anymore, but
I would watch Ralph Emery and the Puppet, and.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I think that he was Nashville.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Now, well TNN is what I remember.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I just said, no, there's the name it in his
show was Nashville now, I think on TNN. And then
when he went away, it became Crook and Chase and
they had primetime Country.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
And it's fun talking to those guys too, because I
remember just watching Crook and Chase introduced music videos and
artists to me. Like I remember when Little Big Town
had like Tornado.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Oh, I watched.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Crook and Chase introduced me to Tornado. But like, that's
what I watched with my grandma a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It was. That's how I got, you know, to love
the Opry.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, was were you still living in Arkansas?
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I was, yeah, and my grandma is who would either
have me listen to the Opry because an AM radio,
that thing would travel one thousand miles that night. And
then we would watch Oh so you would listen to
six fifty it would come through at night.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
So we would listen to it and it had it
definitely had a run on TENN as well, and so
we would watch it a bunch. And then we watched
Ralph Emery and the Puppet. I love the Puppet.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
When I was a kid, it was.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
A shotgun red Yeah, I love the Puppet.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
And then Crook and Chase. When you were in Oklahoma,
did you have Is that what you watched? How is
that how you got Nashville?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah? For me, it was I would come home from
school and I would flip channels back and forth between
TENN and CMT. That was the only two back then,
you know, Uh, and I would record. I would just
put a video tape in and record, like if the
(14:57):
video tape was four hours, I would record four hours
worth of CMT and and like leave the house and
hopes that whatever video that I was was my favorite
at the time, I would catch during that block of
time and I would sit there and when I get
home and fast forward like on play to see if
you know, oh, there's Kelly Willis. Finally I got the
(15:18):
Kelly Willis video or you know, whatever it was at
the time, or Mark, Mark Cauley or whoever I was,
you know, a huge fan of at that moment. And
and uh, it was that's where I learned. You know,
CMT used to play the video and at the end
they would show the credits and most of the time,
it seemed like that period of time they would show
(15:39):
who the songwriters were. And then I started getting really
interested in that and into your question. That's where I
really started getting this, Oh, this is a there's a
community in Nashville that's putting all this together. Like between
ten N and CMT, I started figuring that stuff out.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
You know, did you play music as a kid, because
I was looking some stuff up because I feel like
I know pretty much all the stuff that you would
normally talk about. But I saw an award that you
got at sixteen years old that was called like that.
It was some Oklahoma award that I'd never heard of.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, do you know what that was called?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah? It was the Denbo Diamond Award. What it is? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:18):
And I couldn't figure out what it was.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
They just said known for his Oklahoma's and or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
What is that award? Is that music?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It was talent. It was a talent competition. There was
a talent statewide talent competition called Oklahoma Kids. And you know,
it's funny because now I see how these young kids,
you know, make a name for themselves and become, you know,
(16:47):
successful artists now basically through social media as far as
I can tell, which is awesome. You know, whatever way
makes it happen is what it is. Back then, man,
nobody really knew like how do you make it? How
do you get on CMT? Like where is this? Where
do I apply? You know? And really the only thing
(17:11):
anybody knew was, well, you got to move to Nashville.
Well what do you do before that, you know, especially
if you're you know, a kid in school, but you
love country music. And for me, you know, the key
things that happened for me was my mom knew I
loved to sing, and she was all about you know,
(17:32):
pageants or any kind of a talent competition or what.
She's ate that stuff up, you know. So I'd be
singing in my bedroom all the time as a little kid,
and I remember she started entering me into talent shows
and things and then anything pageants first and because they
had a part where you could sing, and as is
(17:53):
before karaoke tapes, and so I'd be singing, you know,
old time rock and roll over the actual wreck, just
trying to slycs out a louder than Bob Seeger, you know,
our cat scratch fever was. But that was my other specialty.
It's basically whatever records my brother had and and so, uh, anyway,
(18:15):
she would sign me up for just about anything going
on in ad Oklahoma that there was going to be
a band, and she would just try to get me
on these things. And eventually she got me uh hooked
up with They had a little local opry type show
there in Ate, Oklahoma called the Mcswayne Theater. They'd have
(18:37):
local people come sing, you know, every other weekend and
play with the house band. And through that I had
met other people, you know, I met There was a
couple in Nashville named Mike and Angie Stafford who was
plugged into this Oklahoma kids thing and they said, man,
you should, we should, you know, get you involved in this.
(18:58):
It's like I say, white comp you could win, You
could probably win this thing. We think you're good enough
to win. And so I went and entered this competition
and it was like kids doing you know, magic tricks
to a lot of dancing, a lot of singers, a
lot of like musical type performances. And I was, as
(19:18):
far as I can remember, the only kid that walked
out there. And I sang the River by Garth Brooks,
and I sang if I could Bottle This Up by
Paul over Street and I won this this whole thing,
you know, and it was like I won twelve hundred
dollars and I still have this little the Dinbo Diamond Award,
(19:43):
which was an actual like pen that said, and it
had a little tiny diamond on it or whatever, and uh,
you know, and looking back on that, it seemed like
it was a big deal at the time, but what
it really was was a confidence booster for me. Like man,
and I did that, you know, maybe I maybe I
(20:04):
might have a shot at something. You know.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
May think had you not one, you possibly wouldn't have
moved to Nashville.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Uh maybe, you know, because it's one thing if your
if your mom and dad tell you how good you
are at something, you know, but when you have some
people who don't know you that are really judging you
on your talent, and they and you and they say
you're good, then maybe I wouldn't have moved. Maybe I
(20:31):
wouldn't have kept pursuing it. But you know, I won
that thing. I won month like money, I got money
for singing, like what, you know. I remember a couple
of times I kept that twelve hundred dollars in like
a jar in the in the cabinet. And my dad
and I lived in an apartment in Ate, Oklahoma, and
I remember a couple times he said, hey, man, can
(20:51):
I borrow one hundred bucks? I pay you back? And
I remember, like, oh, I leaned on my dad a
hundred bucks, Like what you know, and it was just
like it kind of just helped me to start realizing, man,
it's time to start becoming a man and figure out
what I'm gonna do with my life. And I really
like how that felt. I was sixteen or seventeen, and like,
(21:15):
all right, let's go with this country music thing for
a while.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Did you try that in Oklahoma for a while before
you moved.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Like, play any sort of restaurants or bars where you
could make twenty bucks a night or something.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Well, the McSwain Theater that I was talking about, that
guy would give me. His name was Paul Offered and
and my friends Larry and Carol Large they kind of
helped run the band and stuff. But Paul would give me,
I think forty bucks or something every time I sang.
And you know which was I was in high school,
(21:45):
Like hell, you know, I had friends that were delivering
papers and stuff, not making that much money, you know,
and so yeah, I would get paid to do little
things here and there.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
What was it like when you moved Inshville and everything's elevated?
Was that intimidating or inspiring?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
It was horrifying to me because in Ada, you know,
even just as a high school kid. I you know,
I was in the newspaper all the time, and people
knew who I was. They would see me in come,
say high or whatever, just because I'd kind of made
a name for myself in Pontatock County, Oklahoma. And when
I went to Nashville, nobody obviously knew how I was
(22:25):
and really didn't care, you know. And I'd never felt
that in my life at any level of like just
just being you know, ignored. You know. Luckily, when I
moved to Nashville, I had met a lady named may
Burn Axton who was from Ada, who they had brought
(22:46):
back to give her this award, like a lifetime Achievement
award at that mcswaing Theater because she had written Heartbreak
Hotel for Elvis and her son was Hoyd Axton, the
actor and singer song and he came and it was
I got a chance to meet them. And she told
me that night, she goes, well, if you ever moved
to Nashville, call me up and I don't introduce you
(23:10):
or try to help you anyway I can. And that's
I moved to Nashville. And the next day I called her.
I just blind called her called her and said, I'm
in town, you know, And she goes, well, you are
you working? And I go, no, I just I'm not
even eighteen yet.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
You have twelve hundred bucks of my name. Well, I
love when I drove my dack.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
It's a long drawn out of that. Uh. And she said, well,
I have some things that I need done around my house.
I'll pay you to come work paint my house and stuff.
I've got a family reunion coming up and I want
the place to look good. And so that's what I did.
For like the first two weeks. I moved to Nashville.
Painted Maybourne Acton's house and you know her Hoyt was there.
(23:53):
He was living in his tour bus in her driveway
at the time. I don't know if it's where he lived,
but that's where he was staying. He wouldn't stay in
her house. And I remember I would go and sit
on the curb and I'd go to Jack in the
Box or whatever and get something to eat for lunch.
And one day I was sitting on the curve there
(24:13):
and he opened the bus door and I couldn't believe it,
Like I was. My favorite movie as a kid was Gremlins.
And so this is a guy from Gremlins like standing
there and he goes, he goes, hey, boy, come on
up here. And so I went up on his bus
and and uh, and he just talked like he just
(24:34):
wanted to talk, you know, and and uh. He was
a chain smoker. And he was just the coolest person
I had ever seen or met, Like he was just
like not even a real person to me, like he
was from the movie. Like I couldn't believe it. And
I told him that day I said, well, okay, you know,
(24:57):
like I've heard to go back to work. I said,
are you going to be here tomorrow? And he goes, yeah,
I'll be here, and I go, well, tomorrow's my birthday.
I turning eighteen tomorrow. And so the next day, same thing.
He invited me up on his bus and he said
what kind of music are you gonna make? You know?
And I told him who my people were I looked
(25:20):
up to, and he said, well, listen to this song.
And he started tapping. He didn't have a guitar, he
just started tapping on the table in his bus and
he sang old Red to me, and my mind was blown,
like what is this song like? And you can imagine
it coming from Hotz's voice, you know, it's big, deep voice.
(25:42):
It was just mesmerized, and I didn't think I would
ever hear the song again. I didn't even know what
it was or where it came from or anything. And
then he went back into his back of his bus
and he came back out and he gave me this
knife that was like this. It's like this, I'll still
have it, and he told me a story. Well first
(26:03):
he just told me the story about the knife, about
the guy that made it out of some railroad tracks,
and he gave it to me from my eighteenth birthday,
and he's a happy birthday, you know. And so I
got the knife on my eighteenth birthday and I was
given what went on to be arguably my signature song,
(26:24):
maybe the most impactful song of my career, within two
weeks of moving to Nashville. On my I still have
the knife. Yeah, that's I's got. I got a bar
at my house that I have a few things that
mean something to me, and it's right there in the middle.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
We interrupt this interview to bring you a message from
our sponsor, and we're back on the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
What did your appearance, say, moved to Nashville.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
They were completely supportive of it. You know, I'm sure
deep down they thought, you know, what the hell is this?
But they also knew that I absolutely had no interest
in anything else like it unless it was fishing or hunting.
This is the only shot this kid has it something meaningful,
(27:26):
you know, And so they were very supportive of it.
And of course, especially my mom just probably thought, oh,
he's gonna make it, you know. She just didn't have
any doubt about it whatsoever. I'm not sure if my
dad was it was totally that confident, you know, he
had a little more different view on it, but he
was very supportive of me going and trying it, and
(27:49):
and and so that that was really helpful too. You know.
There was never any resistance or you know, I just
felt full on support from all of my family to
go try this thing. You know, it's actually working for
you around here in our area, so maybe you can
do it.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
You know, do you remember the first time that they
where they were living, not where you were, heard your
song That actually meant you were making it, because they
heard your song randomly somewhere.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I don't I don't remember when they heard it like your.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Mom's like I heard Austin on the radio. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I'm sure that conversation happened. I think I probably beat
them to the punch to everything though, Like is anytime
something would happen, like when Austin came out, like when
it first charted on Billboard back then, you just waited
till the actual magazine came out and you're like, oh
my god, there it is at seventy two. You know,
(28:46):
first call you mom, my song is at seventy two.
It's on the chart like for real, like, oh my god,
you know. And so my constant updates probably outran any
any kind of news that they would have for for me.
You know. I remember, though I happened to be home
(29:09):
back then when your album came out. This is oh
my god. It was brutal to for me. When your
album came out, you had to go do these in
store signings like Walmart or Kmart was still a big
music seller back then, and so they sent me out
(29:30):
kind of like the radio tours. The week my album
came out, I had to go do these in store
like autograph things, and they thought it would be a
good idea to send me back through where I came from.
That would make a story. You know, he's back home
with his And that week I was happened to be
staying at my mom's house. I was in between Oklahoma
(29:51):
City and Dallas, so I got to go to my
mom's for a day in between. And that day their
label called me and said Austin had gone number one
at country radio. And of course it was just like
I couldn't have been at a better place with my
friends and family and and you know, it was just unbelievable.
(30:12):
Like newspapers that I had grown up looking at as
a kid, like the Daily Oklahoma, the Tulsa World, Like
people were bringing to my autograph signing there and Ate Oklahoma,
Like I was on the cover of those newspapers, and
it was just everything, like like when you're talking about
your dreams coming true, Like it was just like that
(30:33):
for me. Like after seven years in Nashville, the song
got on the radio, I was on the cover of
the newspaper. Song went.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
You know, you went from two weeks working to seven years.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
It took that long with with my attraction a little tractions.
You get close a couple times before like you got
a deal, like were you ever almost there?
Speaker 2 (30:52):
The only person from the executive record label side that
I only got close twice, and it was the same
guy both times, and it was Doug Johnson. I had
a I had gotten a meet a chance to meet
Doug Johnson when he ran Epic Records or he was
(31:16):
an R. I don't know what he did at Epic
an R or something. And I went in and I
got to plan, you know, my tape, and I think
I might have even played him something on the guitar.
He said, Man, I think you got something. He goes,
I want to think about this. I think you I
(31:37):
like this, you know. And so for like a week
I was dying like for my phone to ring, like
and finally he called like a week later, and he
just said, you know, I just don't think you're ready.
I think I want you to keep coming to see me,
but I don't think you're ready yet. And he took
(31:57):
maybe one or two other meetings with me, and nothing
ever happened. And then a few years later I met
Bobby Braddock, who who strongly believed in me, and he
went and re produced like three tracks on me, one
being old Red and a song called all Over Me,
(32:21):
and I can't remember the third one. And he went
to every record label in Nashville and pitched me, and
he went to at that time, Doug Johnson had moved
over and was taken over a Giant Records, and he
had a meeting with Doug Johnson said I want to
play this new kid and handed in Missus Blake Shelton,
and Doug went, oh my god, that's the kid. I
(32:43):
remember him. And I remember they called like a couple
of days later and said I was you know. Doug said,
I was right, you just needed some time. I want
to sign you to Giant Records. And of course attorney
at the times like, well, we'll see about that, and
I was like, no, we're not going to see about it.
(33:04):
I have been in Nashville all these years. I'm signing
this record deal, you know. And and so uh it
was four years though, I think three or four years
after I signed before they we ever released any music.
And so that was that was the same kind of
purgatory as the first half of not being signed. But
(33:27):
you know, it's getting the record deal. Was when I
signed the record I remember I went and met Bobby
and I drove there. Used to be a restaurant in
Nashville called Naushville, and we went and met her there
to tell her, all right, we decided to we want
to we want to sign with Giant Records, you know.
And that was the first day that I ever felt
(33:49):
like I belonged in Nashville. I felt like I had
a place, Like I didn't feel like a cling on
driving down Music Row, you know, just beating on doors
and being a pain in everybody's ass, and you know,
just I just felt like I belong here now, like
I really have a place on Music Row.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Now, you know, did you ever think you'd go home?
Did you ever think you quit?
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (34:15):
There any instance way, like I don't know if this
is for me anymore.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
There was always yeah. And it started happening when my
friends that I graduated high school with were now graduating
college and there I was still like, you know, hanging
out in Nashville and I but every time that I
almost gave up, something would happen. There would always be
(34:39):
some little hey, I heard so, and so you know,
they dropped, they dropped an artist, and they they are looking.
You know, there would always be some little glimmer of hope.
You know. I remember I got a meeting one time
with you know, Byron Gallimore, which is from ten. Huh,
don't know?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
From ten?
Speaker 2 (35:00):
From Tim McGraw. Yeah, tim McGraw's producer. I got and
Byron would kill me, but I don't care. It's been
long enough now I can tell this story. He'll probably
give me crap about it. But I had a meeting
with Byron and I played him a bunch of songs
that I had written or co written. It was of
my demos, and I even played him something on the guitar,
(35:21):
and it was kind of like he goes, man, but
he didn't run a record label or anything, but he
was probably with Tim McGraw back then, the hottest producer
in Nashville, and so it was as close to getting
a record if Byron was going to produce you as
somebody would sign you, you know. And he said, man,
I really like these songs, and I like your voice.
(35:44):
He goes, but you just don't really have like that
that bottom end, that bass bass that you need, you know,
to like you. He goes, how old are you?
Speaker 5 (35:54):
You know?
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Said man, I'm twenty or however old I was, and
he goes, yeah, I mean it's want to be there.
It'll be there. You know. You just need more wear
and tear on your voice, and your voice just isn't
quite developed. And he goes, this is what he's gonna
kill me about. He goes, man, you do you smoke
or you drink whiskey or anything? And I go, well,
(36:16):
I don't smoke. I said, I drink if I can
get it, you know. He goes, well, he goes, maybe
if he smoked or something, and I man, I left
his office and I went straight there. Used to be
that Virginia's market. They might still be there that we
called it the Murder Mark. I drove straight there and
I bought a pack of it. Is right when Marlborough
(36:39):
Ultra lights came out, I thought, man, I can probably
smoke one of them. They're probably not too bad. And
I bought a pack of Marlborough Ultra Lights. And for
three months I sat on my back porch over by
Harding Mall. I had a little apartment over there, and
I try to smoke these cigarettes, and man, I would
cough and gag. And I finally got to where I
(37:01):
could smoke them, you know. And then but I don't
know how, because my dad smoked. He was addicted to
cigarettes his whole life, but most of his life, and
I never got addicted to him. Finally, one day I
was like, man, this is stupid, Like what am I doing?
You know? I never I guess I wasn't doing it right,
but I I tried it. I tried it. Byron. I
(37:22):
guess eventually I got old enough that I had enough bottle.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Me end developed.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Huh, low end developed naturally enough. I guess. Let that
be a lesson Byron.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
You know you're doing the residency in Vegas, which is
super cool.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
I have a personal question about that. Do they send
a plane to get you every show or do you
stay there?
Speaker 2 (37:47):
No? I just have my own plane. You know, I
don't have the Garth. I don't have the.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Gard's bigger flex if you have your own plane.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
I guess. So it's just it's pretty expensive. Yeah. I
always heard about it, we all as as country artists.
I remember when Garth got that that residency that he
did at the Wind, when that was end of the plane,
and that was before residencies were like the thing to do,
and it was like, what's he gonna do? What they
gave him? What they gave him?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
The plane, the end, they gave him the pla R.
Steve Wind gifted him the plane.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, he set the bar too high right off the bat.
You know, I don't I don't know if anybody's arrived
at that Garth level ever again. You know, the Caesar's
is like, hey man, we'll pay you, but you figure
out how to get your ass hero, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
So I went to the Garth Residency.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
I haven't never heard anything, but how incredible it Well,
it was the acoustic one.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Right, it was acoustic, and he would play songs that
influenced him into a song that kind of made sense
after it. So he'd play like a James Brown song.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
He played a song from the Eagles like a verse
in a chorus and then going to one of his
songs versus chorus, which then it was hour and forty
five minutes. You know so fast that those shows are
really fun though, because it's massive artists like yourself, but
you're closer to them as you then you normally would
be at an arena or a big amphitheater.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Is that fun for you to actually be closer to people.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
I love to be able to to interact. You know,
the one thing that I never truly loved about touring arenas,
and when we got to those kind of size of venues,
you know, I mean, that's your dream, that's the ultimate,
like look at me, you know, but it was never
as fun to me. And I learned early on, man,
(39:33):
you can't have the kind of moments that you have
at the coliseum at Caesar's Palace in an arena because
people don't know who you're talking to. So if you
try to like have a moment with somebody in the audience,
you really lose. At least I never figured out, you
(39:53):
really lose the arena at that moment. You know, you
so everything you do, you really have to play everything
over the top big to everybody. You know. That's how
I've had to, you know, get through and feel like,
you know, I did a good job, you know. But
my passion, what I love is when I would play
(40:13):
the bars or you know, a small theater or do
something acoustic and and have those moments with somebody specific
in the audience or a group that you can tell
is a birthday party or a bridesmaid party or something,
and have a moment because in the venue that size,
everybody's in on whatever's happening, you know, and it just
(40:37):
for me, that's the most fun to have that kind
of a connection. I'm more afraid of an audience if
I can't have that kind of connection.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
You know, Hang tight, the Bobby Cast will be right back.
Well them back to the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Yeah, those shows are always super fun because you're just closer.
You just you can just again because only massive artists
play those the Vegas residencies. But then it's kind of
the opposite of what you're used to because then you're
super close to a massive artist.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, and so that that's fine. Is this your second
round doing them though? Right?
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Do you stay at the casino or do you get an airbnb?
Or do you just go home?
Speaker 2 (41:26):
I usually just go home. I mean it's just like
thirty minutes.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Do you ever go to the casino?
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Do you ever go to the casino and gamble?
Speaker 5 (41:33):
No?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Did you ever have a gambling phase?
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Are you still in that gambling phase? Just not then?
Speaker 2 (41:38):
I wasn't. I wouldn't just call it a gambling phase.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
I'd call it a poker I had one of those two. Yeah,
Big I used to fly out to Vegas all the time,
playing tournaments.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
Just love to play the tournaments and stuff, but not
as I don't bet on sports or any of that stuff,
you know, outside of a stupid fantasy football league, you know.
But uh no, I'll never go in there any more.
Just I feel like, if I'm going to step out
when I'm in Las Vegas, I'll go over to Old
Red and jump on stage and sing something, you know,
(42:09):
and feel like I'm getting, you know, getting to do
something fun and you know, showing my face and you know,
it's always you know, a good idea, you know. When
I have these places to poke my head in once
in a while, I feel like, because you know, I
think it's important for people to feel like it really
is somewhere that I would come to, and so I
(42:31):
do try to go to them and when I can.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Isn't it crazy how all that happened.
Speaker 3 (42:35):
You're you meet somebody in your hometown and she's like,
move to Nashville. But then while you're living in Nashville,
her son takes you in, plays you a song, and
then you record that song in your first few songs,
and then it becomes a had for.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
You and then you named Bart. But all that because
she happened to be receiving an award in the small
town that you grew up in, and you were there
that night.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I look back, man, and I think, you know, I
wonder if if one thing, to go back to your
question about that contest, I want, if one thing would
have happened different, just one thing, I wonder what I'd
be sitting here today talking to you about all this.
You know, it's just amazing how things have to especially
in this business. You know, have to just absolutely just
(43:25):
line up perfectly and the right thing ends, something begins.
You know, It's it's crazy to think about, you know,
the what IF's for sure.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I've got three more questions for you if you were
to go sit down. We're an hour. What's about an hour?
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Really?
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (43:45):
What do you want to know for about anything? Anybody
wants to hear? It's just me?
Speaker 1 (43:49):
I think that's what they want about me the whole time.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Talk about you?
Speaker 3 (43:52):
All right, give me one question. Give me the three
questions you think I could ask the most?
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Were you dying to leave Arkansas?
Speaker 3 (44:01):
I knew the only way that I was going to
be successful and what I wanted to do, which was radio,
TV comedy. Is I had to leave a town to
seven hundred people. So to me, Hollywood or New York
or Nashville, that was fairy tale.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Like, it wasn't hard, It wasn't luck.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
It was really hard because I knew nobody, but I
just knew it was the only way that I was
going to have a shot. Yeah, me too, because again,
you would see TV that stuff wasn't real to me
or to you because I'm in Arkansas, You're in Oklahoma.
People in New York and LA that was so fancy
and rich in Hollywood. Yeah, none of that was real.
I when I went to Idol, because I was on
(44:38):
Idol for four years and I'd never been to California
until it was time to go for work, and that
was what a lot of those kids were going through.
That's part of the reason they hired me for that
show because the first time that I was there and
I was like, oh, I get it, and we'd be
off to the side, I'd be like, you're freaked out.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
You've never seen buildings like this. Same same with me.
So it was difficult, but I knew I had to
do it.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Yeah, that's a question one, all right.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Question two? The baby are you are you. Are you
afraid right now? Are you excited? Are you scared?
Speaker 3 (45:15):
The easy answer is, yeah, of course I'm scared. The
hard answer is that I never had a dad. I
don't have a model, which like, I didn't really have parents.
My mom was an addict, you know, so she was
in and out. My grandma raised me a lot.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
For me.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
The part that's super scary is that I've not seen
successful parenting, so it's totally unknown. It's like we're going
to drop you off on Mars. That's what this feels like.
So I'm excited about it because I think the part
of me can heal through that version of it.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
But yeah, I don't know. I know what's gonna Well.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
The one thing that you know is you're going to
be there.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
So but like my dad left me when I was
five years old, how do you leave that? And is
that genetically in me where I'm just like I should
leave like that stuff. That's the part where that I
wrestle with.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, I hear you, but I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
I don't either, because I have an awesome wife. Yeah,
but yeah, that's that's the answer to that one. And
your final question, because I have like two more questions
for you.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
My final question for you is what are your other
two questions for me?
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Great?
Speaker 3 (46:24):
Thank you, good question. Glad you asked. I want you
to do this one through five. Give me your favorite
Blake Shelton songs one through five.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Number one, Well, I guess, I guess Austin is probably
my number one favorite. You know, I've gone through such
a love hate relationship with that song.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Did you not like to play it for a while?
Speaker 2 (46:56):
It will only because like I was just so sick
of it, like are you kidding me? Like, I mean,
it's the it was brought me to the game, and
and and so about five or six years after that
song came out, you know, when I first started performing,
(47:20):
we would do Austin twice a night. We would like
do it like early in the set, because that's the
only reason anybody's at this bar. And then we would
like do it at the end because people showed up
that weren't there when I first did it. You know,
So doing that one song twice a night for at
least two years, you know, because I don't have anything
(47:43):
else you may wanted to hear. And we were so
excited when Old Red started becoming a hit it was like,
oh my god, we have two songs, and so I
just got so burnt out on it and and it
but I never stopped doing it, you know. It was
just like, oh gosh, we got it. Here we go,
you know, and now I'm back to man. What a song?
Speaker 5 (48:07):
Like?
Speaker 2 (48:08):
What a just an incredible song that those two that
they wrote, and and it just stands. It seems like
it stood the test of time, you know, and like
people you know, come to the show and I could
tell it takes them back to a moment like in
their life when when that song was a hit. And
(48:29):
so there's that. I think a song that I don't
perform anymore in concert, which is probably one of the
most well written songs that I've ever recorded, is called
the Baby.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
It's number two on your Lesson.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Yeah, because it it's just the most honest and heartbreaking
lyric like it's like the stereotype of country music being
the sad. I mean, it is it. It is the
epitome of that. I stopped doing it in my shows
(49:04):
because it would bring like you'd be you'd finally get
the place going, you know, if you're playing an amphitheater
or an arena and then you play the baby and
literally like people want to leave. They're like, this is
the worst feeling I've had all night, Like this is terrible.
I I don't want to hear this, you know, And
(49:24):
so I just stopped doing it. And and but the
song was you know, it was a it was a
big record for us, And it's weird to have a
record like that that you just you're just afraid that
if you do it live, you're just gonna kill the show.
Uh and uh. And then I would put old that
would be number two. I'd put Old Redd at three. Uh.
(49:46):
And there's a song that I had out years ago
called who Are You? And I'm not looking that. I
just think so just a beautiful song and I just
love the idea of that song. And I don't know,
maybe mine would be You was another record that we
(50:07):
had years ago that I just always thought was, uh,
you know, underrated. And these are all ballads, huh.
Speaker 3 (50:14):
Yeah, My favorite songs are all ballads too, because you
can really spend time with the lyric.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (50:19):
I don't know songs that are fast. I kind of
know melodies that are fast. I don't know songs that
are fast lyrics anyway, But I listened to the baby
every night before I go to bed.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
Do you really you do? Not know? I don't, but
you're just the kind of guy though you would have
some reason like yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Yeah, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 3 (50:35):
Final question for you, if you have a perfect day,
what's your perfect day?
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Perfect day is in Oklahoma at the ranch. Gwen is there, uh,
and the boys are there, but the boys are doing
their own thing, Like that's what I love about the ranch, Like,
you know, that's where the kids have learned to dry,
that's where they've learned to fish then do all the stuff.
(51:01):
That's where they've learned that there's places you can go
and just be free. And they don't get that here,
you know. And so my perfect day is there with
Gwynn and the boys. And the boys are outside doing things.
You know. It makes me happy to see them just
(51:23):
out messing around. It's simple and does that sounds It's
just makes me happy, you know. And it's not hot. Yeah,
and it's not hot. I'll take you know, five degrees
over one hundred degrees.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Yeah, I'm not going to take that, but I get it. Okay,
you spent time of pairing, So give me your favorite albums.
Three favorite albums of all time? Find this is It?
Send Us on Blaze the Glory.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
Earl Thomas Connolly, Somewhere between Right and Wrong was one.
I put a lot of miles on that cassette.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Buddy, was that given to you by your mom or dad?
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Or no? I bought I bought that one. I bought
that one. That the album had been out for fifteen
years before I.
Speaker 1 (52:12):
Bought it, That's what I was asking.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah, Uh, I bought Mark Cawley's I think the name
of the album. It was the album that had some
even the Man in the Moon is crying on it.
I think it was Born in Black and White is
the name of the album.
Speaker 1 (52:33):
That was such a gem because even man in that's
such a gem.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
Yeah, that whole record, Man, it got it. I'm gonna
have to do my top five haul Over Streets Heroes
album and then I'm going to say, Travis Tritt, it's
all about to change those ones. And Sean camp had
had an album that I lived on to six?
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Was it five? Or said? Was that six?
Speaker 2 (53:02):
I think so? All right?
Speaker 1 (53:03):
You said he didn't like lists.
Speaker 2 (53:05):
That's what I mean his interview.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
And you started the interview, I don't like lists. You
demanded to do a list.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
I don't top fives or to our top ones.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Lists.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
That's a Ki's said here tomorrow and go oh all
forgot about Kelly Willis. Yeah, she's got to be in there.
I thought I was going to marry her when I
was in high school.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
You know, we used to record a video.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
And Teresa Berg I had her line through the Moon
album of Miles on that thing.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
And you're still making the list. I love it. Yeah
changed you, he changed man.
Speaker 3 (53:36):
I really appreciate the time we came out here to
see you, so I really appreciate you spending an out here. Yeah,
this is this is really cool. Uh and you guys,
we talked about it at the very beginning before Blake
got here. But it's happening at Caesar's Palace, the Residency.
Go go see it. It's awesome. He talks to every
single person in the crowd. And if he does not
talk to you, your money back. You heard it here first,
(53:56):
straight eye contact, a conversation with you or your money back.
Speaker 2 (53:59):
Like I just flashback to my instore autograph signings.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
All right, good to see you, Blake, Thank you buddy.
This has been a Bobby cast production,
Host
Bobby Bones
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Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.