Billboard (Nov. 9th 2002)

The Billboard BackBeat

Blake Shelton: Who's Hunting Who?

As the old saying goes, sometimes you get the bear; sometimes the bear gets you. It looked like the latter scenario might be played out for country singer Blake Shelton, who enjoyed a face-to-face encounter with a bruin while on a recent five-day Colorado elk bow-hunting trip with fellow singer/sportsman Andy Griggs and their respective stepfathers.

"The first morning I went out, I came up on a big cliff, and it was beautiful looking off with my binoculars," Shelton recalls. "I stood there about 10 minutes and when I turned around, about 20 steps away, there was this big black bear looking at me."

Shelton says he thinks the bear was trying to figure out what kind of long-haired creature Shelton might be. "We looked at each other for two or three seconds, long enough for me to crap myself and him to realize what I was," he says. "Then the bear took off through the woods."

The experience was "humbling," Shelton says. "It's overwhelming to be staring at a wild animal like that, in his house."

Hunting and fishing have been lifelong passions for the Ada, Okla., native, culminating in many ways with the Warner Bros. artist's recent purchase of 460 acres of of deer-infested property near Centerville, Tenn., west of Nashville. Like many outdoor enthusiasts, Shelton believes sportsmen get a bad rap.

"Hunters are the best conservationists that exist," he says. "A lot of organizations talk a good game about saving animals, but when it comes down to it, we're the only ones getting it done, spending millions of dollars every year on hunting and fishing licenses, constructing and preserving habitats."

Shelton points out that hunting keeps animal populations in balance via prudent game management. "There are more animals now than there have ever been, and the animals are healthier now," he says. "Harvesting is the best way to keep herds healthy."

Which, of course, is not Shelton's only goal. "I'm not gonna say my whole goal is to preserve wildlife. I love to hunt. It's something I was taught to do and will continue to do. It's my therapy."

Even so, Shelton is doing his part to create habitat on his own corner of the country, rehabilitating acreage on his Hickman County land. "Three hundred and forty acres of my land had been timbered, without a blade of grass there," he says. "I've made it my goal to build this place back up and make it suitable for wildlife again."

As for the harvesting part, that's coming along as well. "My goal was to make enough money to have my own land to hunt on, whether it was 20 acres or 2,000 acres," he says. "I just shot my first doe out there a week ago, with my bow. I learned a long time ago you have to take a good share of does off a place to keep the population in balance. Plus, anything you can get with a bow is a trophy."