CNN.com (March 6th 2002)

Country star Blake Shelton: Living his dream

Sometimes, Blake Shelton says, he misses the old days. Those were the times, not so long ago, when he was barely employed as a Nashville, Tennessee, demo singer, bumming around the city's music clubs and hoping for a big break.

"That's when the dream is so far off it seems like it will never happen," says Shelton in a phone interview from Centerville, just outside the country music mecca. "It can be most anything you want it to be."

But, sometimes, the dream comes true.

It did for Shelton. The singer had a No. 1 country hit last year with "Austin," and his album, "Blake Shelton" (Warner Bros.), has been a bestseller. The Oklahoma native is now in charge of a five-piece band, employing a bus driver, and on the road playing to crowds at rodeos, clubs and local fairs. He bought a 124-acre farm with a 1,000-square-foot house not long ago, the one thing he had promised himself if he were ever to be a success.

Of course, as Shelton will tell you, success isn't necessarily a bolt of lightning. It took hard work for the 25-year-old to get here.

Shelton grew up in Ada, Oklahoma, about 90 minutes south of Oklahoma City. He always loved music, he says -- his siblings' rooms would pulse with everything from hard-rocking Ted Nugent to poppy Top 40 sounds -- but wasn't sure about performing.

"I used to sing all around the house, and my mother thought it was cute," he recalls. So, when he was a young boy, she placed him in a pageant as the entertainment. "I had to get on stage and wear a tux. After that, I told Mom that I didn't want to sing anymore."

But the bug didn't quite go away. When he was a teen-ager, an uncle taught him how to play guitar. Pretty soon Shelton was playing locally and attracting a following. At 16 he won a statewide award as Oklahoma's top young entertainer, and then legendary songwriter and Oklahoma native Mae Boren Axton -- best known for co-writing "Heartbreak Hotel" -- heard Shelton at her tribute show and talked him into moving to Nashville.

Two weeks after graduating high school, Shelton was off to fame and fortune -- he thought. He arrived in Nashville and immediately called Axton. But Axton didn't give Shelton a multimillion-dollar recording contract. Instead, she asked him to paint her house.

Obviously, this country music business wasn't as easy as it seemed.

After the painting stint ended, Shelton started looking around for jobs. He performed locally, worked demo sessions, landed a songwriting contract, and generally found his way as a working member of the country music industry. Eventually he signed with a record label and recorded an album with legendary Nashville hand Bobby Braddock -- songwriter of George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and Tammy Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" -- at the helm.

"At first I was, 'Yessir, Mr. Braddock.' I was in awe," recalls Shelton. It took awhile for Shelton to "learn how to let my guard down," he says.

But, even with the album done, he didn't believe he was getting anywhere. The last straw came when his record company, Giant Records, closed the week "Austin" was released as a single.

"I was ready to move home," Shelton says.

Then a funny thing happened. The song started getting airplay. Warner Bros. noticed and signed Shelton to a contract. "Austin" eventually spent five weeks at No. 1, and Shelton was an overnight success. His succeeding singles have also done well.

Shelton's still feeling out his experience as a "star." For now, he's generally trustworthy of the direction the record company wants him to take, but also has his own ideas about his career.

"That could be my downfall," he says with a chuckle.

Still, he says, the hardest thing about success is the fact that everybody wants a taste -- and they aren't hesitant about letting you know. After "Austin" hit, he recalls, he started pushing people away; so many were demanding his time that he got to the point of not returning phone calls.

"Looking back, I was kind of scared," he says. He used to sleep until noon and live on cereal; suddenly he had a staff of people depending on him. "I didn't know if I could handle it."

But now, he says, he feels like he's gotten focused again. "I'm trying to be a leader to the people who depend on me to make a living," he says. He's also working on his second album, tentatively scheduled for release in several months.

So sure, Shelton wouldn't mind losing some of the pressure. It's a long way from housepainter to touring country star. But, he says, don't get him wrong: he's exactly where he wants to be.

"I love what I do for a living," he says. "I can't think of a better situation."