The Daily News Journal (March 25th 2004)

Blake Shelton: ‘I refuse to play it safe’

It seems men in country music today have to have a few things going for them that male singers of yesteryear didn't have to worry about. Guys need to be single to feed the fantasy, look good in a pair of Wrangler jeans to rope in the sponsorships, be photogenic enough to grace posters on bedroom walls and be willing to let other people tell them what to sing. In the midst it seems sounding good on the radio may have taken a backseat, but there's vocal studio equipment to work out issues like that now.

There are guys on the radio singing what other people tell them to sing, pretending they're single when they're not and making a ton of money doing it because it's all part of "the business."

Then there's Blake Shelton.

It seems the only ingredients he has in the recipe for success are the Wrangler endorsement and the pin-up good looks. But Shelton just got married, and while some artists might fear a wedding band turning into nail in their commercial coffin, Shelton takes his wife on the road with him. And regardless of radio success or the lack thereof, he doesn't let any one tell him what songs to sing. Lucky for him, he sounds phenomenal singing anything, and his record company seems to know it.

"I want desperately to be a part of country music," says Shelton in a recent telephone interview with The Daily News Journal from a road stop in a city he couldn't seem to place. "I want my music to matter, but I don't want to just fit in. I want to be unique, and as long as I have a hit every now and then, everything's OK."

And, to this point, Shelton has done just that. He'll be the first to admit his radio success is sporadic at times, but when one of his songs hits, it hits big. In the past two years, Shelton has landed hits that will resonate 10 years from now.

"Austin" and "The Baby," singles from his first and second albums respectively, are the stuff that makes people stars, or for Shelton, the songs that give him the credibility to sing what he wants to. He says it's just hard when every song or album doesn't perform like he thinks it should.

"I had higher expectations for 'The Dreamer' than happened," he admits. ("The Dreamer" is Shelton's latest CD and spun singles "The Baby" and "Playboys of the Southwestern World.") "'The Baby ' came out and just took off, and I just didn't have the follow-up singles.

"I refuse to play it safe. People either love it, hate it or they just don't get it. It makes for some big hits and some big misses."

And with that knowledge, Shelton is still as determined as ever to stick to the songs he believes in. He says he finds different elements endearing about every song, but he knows when a song is for him as soon as he hears it.

"There's a lot of different ways something can hit me," he says. "I look for songs that have a unique way of looking at a situation, and I'm a sucker for a great melody. And I don't really know sometimes until I listen to a song and then I can't get enough of it. With 'The Baby' I tried desperately not to cry while I was listening to it so people wouldn't laugh at me. But anything that moves me in some way is what I want. I look for things that make me feel anything."

But lately, career-wise anyway, it seems all Shelton has been feeling is a bit disappointed. He's hoping his next album, due out this summer, will be the turning point in his roller-coaster career.

The first single, "When Somebody Knows You That Well" is already on radio, but Shelton admits the remainder of the album isn't finished yet. So while he admits he has no idea what he's even going to call the record, the one thing he will say is that he's already proud of it.

"I'm more excited about this third album than I have been any of my other ones," he says. "I know people probably say that all the time, but I really mean it. I think I'm now just starting to see who I am as an artist, and I really hope I can connect to people with my story songs. It's hard to find those things, songs that'll make a difference. But I'm really pumped about this. I'm not going to say I'm going to have monster hits and sell millions of records because you just never know. I just hope."

And to this point, it seems hope has carried Shelton a long way. About a decade ago, hope brought him from his home town of Ada, Okla., and deposited him in Nashville. It took Shelton almost eight years to get his first radio hit, but when disc jockey's started playing "Austin," they didn't stop for months. The singer says it's the chart-topping sales of that record for which he will always be proudest.

"The most exciting thing was when the first album went Gold," he says. (A gold record is 500,000 copies sold.) "It's one thing to have a hit or two, but when people go out and buy your stuff because they want to hear more, you know you got their attention. That's real exciting. So no matter what happens in the future, that will still be the most exciting thing because it means people wanted to spend their money to hear me sing."

For those who would like to hear Shelton sing in person, the singer plays the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville on Sunday. Shelton promises to make the night a memorable occasion.

"I love the Ryman, and I'm sure we'll approach this show a little differently," he says. "We'll play some stuff that hasn't been recorded, and we'll have some fun. There are not many places you can sit down with an acoustic guitar and just sing. Nashville's seen it all. You've got to give Nashville something phenomenal to get them to raise an eyebrow."