60 Minutes (Nov. 2nd 2014)

Blake Shelton

NORAH O'DONNELL: Blake Shelton has one of the top country albums in America and a grin that won't go away. He's country music's most recognizable star and that's saying something, since eighty million Americans listen to country music every week; songs about hook ups, pickup trucks and solo cups. And that's just fine with the thirty-eight-year-old Shelton, who grew up in Oklahoma, wears jeans and alligator-skin boots every day, and as you'll see, has enough personality to fill out his six-foot-five country- boy frame.

(Begin VT)

NORAH O'DONNELL: What is it about country that's so popular?

BLAKE SHELTON: You know, it's not just our music, I think, that people feel like they can relate to. But it's us. It's the artists that they feel like they can relate to. I know for me when I go home, I hunt, and I fish, and I plant corn and I drive back roads. I literally do the things that I sing about.

NORAH O'DONNELL: What about the criticism that country music, a lot of it sounds the same?

BLAKE SHELTON: Gosh dang, man, I hear about it all the time. You know, it's the same subject matter over and over again, and all y'all sing about is, you know, pretty girls.

NORAH O'DONNELL: There's a lot of songs about drinking, too.

BLAKE SHELTON: I like pretty girls. And I like drinking. And I like singing about it. So get over it. That's my take on it.

(Blake Shelton performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): On tour in Little Rock last summer, Blake Shelton's point of view was on full display.

(Blake Shelton performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): His concerts across the country are filled with people who see things the way he does.

(Blake Shelton performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): Seats at Shelton's shows are usually holding more beers than behinds. His audience prefers stand-up-sing-alongs.

(Blake Shelton performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL: Here's one of my favorites from one of your biggest hits, "Boys 'Round Here": "Backwoods-- backwoods legit, chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco, spit."

BLAKE SHELTON: Mm-Hm. You can't tell me that doesn't speak to your soul. And--

NORAH O'DONNELL: "Chew tobacco, chew tobacco, chew tobacco, spit."

BLAKE SHELTON: See, you almost tear up when you say that. It's because it's striking a nerve. It's just fun. I don't know how you let loose and just have fun if you're having to-- to think too hard about it. And then when it's time to be serious, I have songs that'll take you down there. Some will take you too far down. It hurts for me to even listen to some of my own songs sometimes. But when I want to have fun and not think about it, I want to sing, you know, "Chew tobacco, spit."

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): Shelton comes by his country credentials naturally. He was raised in Ada, Oklahoma, a town of less than twenty thousand, an hour-and-a-half from the nearest big city.

BLAKE SHELTON: So that was the drive through town.

NORAH O'DONNELL: That lasted two minutes.

(Voiceover): His father sold cars here and his mom ran a beauty parlor. He started singing to the radio as early as he can remember.

BLAKE SHELTON: Any time Mom walked by my bedroom, it was like, what in the hell is he doing in there? It's loud, you know, turn it down.

NORAH O'DONNELL: And she had you performing at beauty pageants--

BLAKE SHELTON: She knew she had a kid that she wanted to get on stage and she put me in the damn pageant and let me-- they have a talent part. He can sing in there, you know.

NORAH O'DONNELL: But wasn't it mostly girls?

BLAKE SHELTON: Oh, God, yes. Mostly all girls. I mean, because what boy from Ada, Oklahoma, would be-- would want to be in the Miss Valentine Pageant, right?

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): But there was a lesson he learned on stage at an early age that Shelton believes is central to his success.

BLAKE SHELTON: I learned that it was more-- it was more to it than just coming up here and singing a song and walking off. I knew I wasn't a good enough singer for that just to be the thing. You got to perform but you also got to entertain. You got to make people laugh. You got to tell a joke or a story. Make the most of the time that-- that you're out here so that people remember you when you walk away.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): Blake grew up the youngest of three Shelton children; older sister, Endy, and brother, Richie, who Blake remembers looking up to for all the usual big brother reasons.

BLAKE SHELTON: His bedroom was right across the hallway from mine when I was little. And he was listening to Hank Williams Junior, or Waylon, or Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Bob Seeger. Just whatever was popular, really, Richie loved all music. And I would be sitting there going, man, that guy's-- that guy's my hero. That's the coolest guy. He's my big brother.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): But the music stopped when Blake was just fourteen years old. Richie Shelton was killed in a car accident.

How did you deal with the grief?

BLAKE SHELTON: I don't know, you know. I remember picking up the phone to call him a week after he was dead, to tell him something. And it was like, you think about what I-- you know, I was picking up the phone to call him, to tell him something I just saw on TV or, and it was like constantly a shock to me that he was dead. It was just--

NORAH O'DONNELL: You don't ever get over it?

BLAKE SHELTON: No, that's what my dad told me, too. He said, look, you will never, ever get over this happening. You're just going to have to learn to get used to it. He was absolutely right.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): He wrote about the loss, even acknowledging his dad's warning.

(Blake Shelton performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): Blake Shelton's childhood wasn't easy. His parents were divorced and for a time, he lived with his dad in this apartment. They lived simply and very country.

BLAKE SHELTON: I went fishing or-- or hunting every day after school. And whatever I had ended up on that porch. I mean, we were bachelors. We had a lot of chicken chow mein--

NORAH O'DONNELL: Yeah. I bet.

BLAKE SHELTON: --in that house and deer chili.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Deer chili?

BLAKE SHELTON: That--

NORAH O'DONNELL: Did you make the deer chili?

BLAKE SHELTON: Oh God, yeah.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Mm-Hm.

BLAKE SHELTON: All that dead stuff I drug up on that porch, we ate it.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): Two weeks after barely graduating from high school, Blake left for Nashville. Five years later, he had a record deal and in 2001, landed his first big hit.

(Blake Shelton singing)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): But having staying power in Nashville is about as easy as making it in L.A. as an actor. And Shelton was known as much for his hairstyle as he was for his musical chops. But his career and his life changed in 2005 when he was asked to perform on this TV special with an up- and-coming singer from Texas named Miranda Lambert.

(Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL: A lot of people who were there say they saw you falling in love at that moment.

BLAKE SHELTON: I guess so.

NORAH O'DONNELL: And when you look back at it, you think?

BLAKE SHELTON: I mean, I guess so. It's hard to argue with what I'm looking at. I'm trying to play the guy card here like, by God, no. But I mean-- I mean that's pretty pathetic right there.

NORAH O'DONNELL: But you were married at the time.

BLAKE SHELTON: I was married. That was easily the toughest thing that-- that I've, you know, been through. I put that-- I put my divorce up there with-- with my brother's death and that was a-- that was a tough, tough call to make.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): Shelton eventually married Lambert. And he started to string together hit after hit.

(Blake Shelton singing)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): And in 2011, was approached about a new music competition show called The Voice. Turns out the boy with the "aw shucks I am from Ada, Oklahoma" personality was about to go Hollywood.

BLAKE SHELTON: I have absolutely no problem with making an ass out of myself.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): Actually, he's made a name for himself. When it started Shelton was probably the show's least known star, but today, he's known as the unpredictable judge with the quickest wit.

(Excerpt from The Voice)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): And the deepest drink, usually vodka.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Showtime.

BLAKE SHELTON: You ready?

NORAH O'DONNELL: I'm ready. Are you ready?

BLAKE SHELTON: I better be.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): Because of his TV schedule, Shelton performs less than other country stars, even though the demand for him is huge.

BLAKE SHELTON: Welcome back to the ACM Awards.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): He hosts the Academy of Country Music Awards and holds a unique country music record: Twelve consecutive number one singles--

(Blake Shelton performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): --so far.

You don't write too many of your songs.

BLAKE SHELTON: I don't. If I've written two hundred songs in my life or three hundred songs, I probably have fifteen of those that I'm proud of. That I truly go, man, I did something there. And I can't imagine me convincing myself that I'm a better songwriter than some of these people in Nashville. I just want the song to be the best song it can possibly be.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): His other priority is getting home as often as possible. When his TV shows or concerts wrap, he heads immediately to the nearest private airport.

BLAKE SHELTON: I am leaving Hollywood. Thank you, God.

(Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): To get back home to Oklahoma, close to where he used to hunt and fish with his dad.

(Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL: He lives with his wife Miranda Lambert on a twelve hundred-acre ranch. They say it's their last private place and we weren't invited in.

(Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert performing)

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): When we drove around town with Shelton he was proud to show us the shop where he gets his boots re-soled--

WOMAN #1: Can we take a selfie?

BLAKE SHELTON: Okay.

WOMAN #2: Thank you.

BLAKE SHELTON: Good to see you, girls.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): --and that he still knows his neighbors.

BLAKE SHELTON: Tell Steve, I said hello.

WOMAN #3: I will.

BLAKE SHELTON: And Pattie, David.

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): But no matter if we were in Oklahoma, L.A. or Manhattan, the country boy and the country star seemed to be the same person.

BLAKE SHELTON: Hi.

WOMAN #4: Hi, how are you?

BLAKE SHELTON: Good. How are you doing?

NORAH O'DONNELL (voiceover): --polite, funny and completely comfortable in those cowboy boots.