Blake Shelton Reflects on ‘The Voice’

Written by SLN Staff Writer July 15, 2011

Blake Shelton is having a banner year; he tied the knot with Miranda Lambert, he’s a special guest on Brad Paisley’s H2O II tour, he recently broke the record for the fastest-selling digital Platinum single for a male country solo artist with “Honey Bee” and he had the chance to participate in the life altering NBC hit show, “The Voice.”

Blake recently spoke with Country Aircheck about how being a celebrity judge on “The Voice” had an impact on his life. “I’m happy about the impact it it’s had on my career, but more than that, working with those kids and getting to know them has changed my life,” he says.

Even though his final team member, Dia Frampton, didn’t win the title of “The Voice,” Blake is still happy with the outcome of the show. “No more than two months ago she was about to give up on her dream of music and had moved back home with her mom and sisters in Utah,” Blake recalls. “I was so happy for her because I got so emotionally invested in Dia. I had never wanted to see something happen so bad for somebody who wasn’t family. Miranda wanted [success] really badly for Dia, too.”

“New York” magazine named Shelton the unofficial winner of the show, noting that he benefited most among the judges, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera. “I probably had the most to gain,” he admits. “The other three are pop and rock stars; they’re on TV and in magazines a lot more than country artists. I was in a situation to not make a difference at all, which would have been expected, or to get up there and wave my arms and get noticed.”

While Blake may have benefited personally, he also hopes that his time on “The Voice” will ultimately benefit the country music genre as a whole. “The one thing that was in the back of my mind the whole time — the thing that probably kept me from self-destructing like I often do — is knowing what I was representing,” Blake says. “I felt a responsibility to country music and to Nashville to take it serious and to work as hard as I could because everything that happens in this genre on a stage like that affects what happens back here. There may be people who never listen to country music that might go buy one of my records now because of that show. And when they buy one of my records, they’ll say, ‘Who’s Miranda Lambert?’ and buy that one, and, next thing you know, they’re buying country records. That’s important to me.”

With his newly released CD, Red River Blue, Blake is back focused on his career, promoting the album between a summer full of tour dates. Blake’s new album is a must-have and is sure to keep his career on the fast track.

-Jodi A., CMIL Contributor

Tags: Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley, The Voice