Blake Shelton Explains How Rascal Flatts Saved His Career

Blake Shelton might be known for his coaching ability on NBC’s The Voice, but if it wasn’t for a few timely tips from country trio Rascal Flatts, he may still be in Oklahoma right now.

Interviewed about his craziest road story, Shelton opened up to his Voice producers about one of his earliest tours — supporting shows for the Flatts trio. He says it was painfully obvious he was out of his league, right from the first show.

“When I first started I don’t think I even realized what a stand-in-front-of-the-microphone type performer I was,” Shelton explains. “It had to have been so boring — not that I’m any more exciting now. But I remember seeing Rascal Flatts come out on stage and they’re just running around and acting crazy, they’re entertaining the audience. It was energy I’d never seen before in country music, and I remember going back to my band after the first weekend and going ‘Hey, we’re gonna have to get some cordless things so we can walk around, and our clothes suck — clearly. We gotta step this thing up if we’re gonna make it in country music.’ So I learned a lot from those guys.”

The rest of the coaching staff also shared their wildest stories from the road, including Kelly Clarkson’s food poisoning in Germany, John Legend’s tour with Kanye West and Gwen Stefani’s cross-country van trip.

Season 17 of The Voice wraps up tonight at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.