News OK (Oct. 18th 2002)

Rising star

Ada's Blake Shelton home for family, fishing

Blake Shelton has come home, packing a hit album, hit singles and a future that looks as bright as the one he dreamed about as a boy.

Shelton arrived on a recent Friday and had some time to relieve stress by doing one of the things he may enjoy even more than success in country music - fishing.

On the day the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns were playing at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Shelton had a full day of media interviews and photos on his schedule, before he finished his day by performing at a local club.

At 6 feet 5 inches tall, there's a lot of Shelton to go around, He spent the day visiting his past, including chats with his parents, old friends and some Ada High School teachers.

All agreed that Shelton always had a smile, a joke and a song ready, even if that meant his school work might suffer.

He left Ada for Nashville, Tenn., right after high school graduation. He was 17. He's 26 now.

"It was the only thing I wanted to do with my life, and that made it easy to hang on," Shelton said, sitting at his mother's kitchen table. "I didn't know how Nashville worked. I hung around and eventually got something going. If I had waited until now to do it, I would have started worrying about how it was going to work out."

One of his first jobs in Nashville was painting the house owned by Mae Boren Axton. The youthful singer had met Axton in Ada, and she encouraged him to move to Tennessee.

He had worked summers painting and roofing houses for his stepfather, Mike Shackleford, and that experience paid off.

He also started singing on demos for other songwriters and worked on his songwriting skills. He played at open mike nights and at singer/songwriter nights at clubs in Nashville.

His break came when Bobby Braddock took an interest in the young singer. Braddock, a highly successful songwriter whose tunes include "He Stopped Loving Her Today," got Shelton a production deal with Sony for a three-song demo.

Finally, Shelton sang his own songs, and Braddock shopped those songs around record labels. They chose to sign Shelton to Giant Records.

Braddock and Shelton worked on his album for three of the next four years. After it was finished, the release date was pushed back again and again.

When it was finally released, the romantic single "Austin" shot up the charts at the same time Giant Records went out of business.

On the strength of that single, Shelton's record and contract were picked up by Warner Bros. Records, where he is now.

Shelton's single "Ole Red" also turned into a big hit, and Shelton is putting finishing touches on a new album, due out early next year.

The first single, "Baby," should hit the radio in the next few weeks.

Shelton got his start when his mother entered a youthful Blake and his sister, Endy, in a children's pageant. He needed a talent, and his mother knew he could sing. Although the singer claims otherwise, his mother, Dorothy Shackleford, insists there were other boys in the contest, too.

Dick Shelton, didn't hear his son sing until he was 13.

"He called and told me he was going to be singing," Dick Shelton said. "I sat way in the back and when he sang, I was amazed."

Dick Shelton had Blake and Endy, as well as their late brother Ritchie, racing motorcycles when they were younger. He treasures a picture from a day all three of his children won prizes.

Ritchie Shelton died in an automobile crash in 1990.

Throughout junior high and high school, Blake Shelton sang in local music shows. In high school, he entertained everyone with his constant singing.

Richard Truitt, Shelton's shop teacher at Ada High School, remembers the high school boy walking into class every day singing "I'll Be Home for Christmas," regardless of the time of year.

It must not have bothered him much, because he saved a project Shelton made in shop class - a small wooden guitar about the right size for a Christmas ornament.

Art teacher John Boettcher remembers Shelton as a so-so student and was surprised when he learned Shelton's logo of a stylized guitar was created by the singer.

Looking at all the trophies decorating the main hall at the high school, if you ask Shelton if any belong to him, he flashes a quick smile that shows off his dimples and says he doesn't think so.

He does confess he won a chili cook-off in Ada while he was taking a bachelor cooking course in high school, but he isn't sure that trophy is there.

Boettcher and Truitt delighted in telling about Shelton the practical joker.

Sitting in a lounge area of the high school, there was a tinge of admiration in the teachers' voices as they told of one incident remembered at the school.

It seems Shelton liked to use roadkill as part of his jokes. One day, he found a dead deer by the side of the road. Shelton brought the deer to school and, with some help, wired the bloated carcass in the driver's seat of another friend's truck.

The deer appeared to be ready to drive away in the truck, scaring a janitor and putting Shelton in the practical joke hall of fame at the school.

Longtime friend Corey Coggburn, now an Oklahoma City banker, remembers that prank well, plus a few more.

"Blake is famous for collecting dead carcasses off highways," Coggburn said. "He would keep roadkill in his car, always ready to pull a practical joke."

When Shelton wasn't singing or playing jokes, he was outside hunting and fishing, something he still does. He just bought a farm 70 miles from Nashville, where he can hunt and fish all he likes.

Not long ago, Shelton and girlfriend Kaynette Williams were hunting on the farm when two tiny, filthy puppies wandered out of the woods. They took the dogs, cleaned them up, got them medical attention and adopted them. They named them Ole Red and Austin.

On this trip to Ada, Shelton bought his mother a registered toy Chihuahua puppy. She named it Baby.

Everyone interviewed about Shelton said the same thing, that he is the most likable person they know, and everyone who meets him likes him.

Shop teacher Truitt might be kidding when he says, "I thought he might make it. He's too lazy to work and too nervous to steal," but Boettcher remembers that high school boy as always having a smile on his face and always calling adults "Sir" and "Ma'am."

Coggburn believes Shelton is one of the lucky people.

"Some people search for their passion their whole life," he said. "Blake found his early."

Dick Shelton thinks the seven years his son spent getting a hit record matured him and made him wise about what's important in life.

"He's not a kid now. He understands the meaning of the business he's in," he said. "I never doubted he'd get the chance to do it. His mother and I have been behind him from day one. We are tickled to death."