CBS This Morning (Nov. 7th 2017)

Blake Shelton’s recent single "I’ll Name the Dogs." It’s already hit Billboard’s top ten.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Well, that's Blake Shelton's recent single "I'll Name the Dogs." It's already hit Billboard's top ten. The song is on Shelton's eleventh studio album, "Texoma Shore," which came out Friday. The country superstar and popular TV judge is returning to his roots. He just opened a restaurant and music venue about a hundred miles southeast of Oklahoma City. Jan Crawford spoke with Shelton in his hometown of Tishomingo. That's about the business and she talked about his future. She's in Nashville, Tennessee, outside Shelton's next restaurant location. Jan, good morning. I'm jealous. I love Blake Shelton.

JAN CRAWFORD (CBS News National Correspondent): I know you do, Norah. And really who doesn't. Well, we're here in downtown Nashville. And behind me, this massive old bank building is going a huge renovation. And when it opens in a few months, it's going to be the anchor of this new Blake Shelton brand, Ole Red. But before Shelton agreed to open a restaurant bar here in the neon lights of Nashville, he first insisted on opening one in a place most people have probably never even heard of. A small town in rural Oklahoma near where he grew up, an area he says made him who he is today.

(Begin VT)

(Blake Shelton performing)

JAN CRAWFORD: For a country music superstar--

(Blake Shelton performing)

JAN CRAWFORD: --this is a small stage.

BLAKE SHELTON: You all have any ideas of songs that you want to hear or anything like that? All of them?

JAN CRAWFORD: But it was Friday night in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, and Blake Shelton was home.

BLAKE SHELTON: I'm just going to play as many songs as I can until I drink too much or my voice blows out, one of the two.

JAN CRAWFORD: It was the first concert in Shelton's new bar and restaurant, Ole Red.

(Blake Shelton performing)

JAN CRAWFORD: An ambitious project in a place with just over three thousand people.

BLAKE SHELTON: Thanks for being here.

JAN CRAWFORD: But for Shelton, the hometown location was a must.

You never really left this place?

BLAKE SHELTON: Yeah. I took a break from this place to go give Nashville a shot. I don't know how to not be in Oklahoma. You know, I don't know how to-- to not go hunting and fishing every year. It's just how I've-- how God built me.

JAN CRAWFORD: Nearly twenty-five years after he gave Nashville a shot, Shelton now has dozens of country music awards and more than twenty chart- topping singles.

BLAKE SHELTON (Billboard Music Awards/ABC): I love you all. Thank you so much. This is incredible.

JAN CRAWFORD: He's also taken on Hollywood--

BLAKE SHELTON (The Voice/NBC): You sing like a man.

JAN CRAWFORD: --earning legions of new fans as a judge on The Voice, where at a difficult time in his life, he met the woman he says gives him hope.

GWEN STEFANI: Talking to Gwen Stefani. He's going to be on Gwen Stefani's team.

BLAKE SHELTON: People even in my own life that said, "Man, I really can't figure the two of you together until I saw it in person." It makes total sense, you know.

(Blake Shelton performing)

JAN CRAWFORD: And it may also seem hard to believe, but in downtown Tishomingo, Shelton and his rock star girlfriend have become a regular sight.

BLAKE SHELTON: She likes it here. It's a relief for her to be able to come someplace that she doesn't have to look, you know, around the corner at every building to see who's taking her picture and following her car, you know. She's-- this is-- this is an area where you do that, then you're going to get some friends called on you.

JAN CRAWFORD: They are going to look out for her.

BLAKE SHELTON: That's right. That's right.

JAN CRAWFORD: But rural Oklahoma wasn't part of the original plan when Colin Reed, who heads the Ryman Hospitality Group, dreamed up a venue built around the Blake Shelton brand.

COLIN REED: The way to think about this is about a hundred and ten million country lifestyle consumers, right? Blake communicates with a huge slug of these-- these-- these folks.

BLAKE SHELTON: They wanted to do it in Nashville which-- duh, no brainer, right? And I went back and forth. And I finally said, "Okay, I'll-- I'll do the restaurant. I'll partner with you guys with one-- one condition. We got to do one in Tishomingo, Oklahoma first."

COLIN REED: You know, I love the guy. So I didn't go, "No, you're crazy." So I--

JAN CRAWFORD: You might have thought it.

COLIN REED: I-- I said, "Let's-- let's think about it." And I talked to our management team and they said, "What are you, crazy?"

JAN CRAWFORD: But more than a year later, the management team and seemingly everyone else was in Oklahoma for the grand opening.

BLAKE SHELTON: I think it's going to be a great thing for the community and it's just going to be a crap load of fun.

JAN CRAWFORD: Lines stretched down the block.

How long have you all been standing in line?

WOMAN #1: Two hours.

MAN: Two hours.

JAN CRAWFORD: Two hours?

(Crowd cheering)

JAN CRAWFORD: --and super fans from all over the country got there early.

Who is here? What time?

WOMAN #2: 4:30 AM. 4:30 AM.

JAN CRAWFORD: Shelton is hoping his latest venture keeps the crowds coming to Tishomingo, providing a much-needed boost to the local economy.

(Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani performing; Ryman/Ole Red)

JAN CRAWFORD: And he and Stefani plan to keep splitting their time between the big stage and the small town.

BLAKE SHELTON: Things never stop for me. They never stop and-- and I relate to-- to Gwen on that level, by the way, trying to get better. She and I both are just living in the-- the moments that are happening.

JAN CRAWFORD: In his latest single, Shelton, now forty-one, is looking forward--

(Blake Shelton singing)

JAN CRAWFORD: --but sometimes he dreams of hanging it all up and heading home for good.

What's the next chapter?

BLAKE SHELTON: Well, I'd like to give you a-- a really honest answer to that question. And-- and I'll-- and I will. Every year for probably the last five years, I say, "You know what, guys? Next year is-- I'm out after that. I'm going to go pick pecans and I'm going fishing for here on out." You know, why not? Why won't I do that?

JAN CRAWFORD: Why don't you?

BLAKE SHELTON: I think there is a part of me that realizes even though this is-- you know, it gets exhausting and-- and it feels like it never ends, that I would probably miss it.

(Blake Shelton performing)

JAN CRAWFORD: With the new venture Shelton is balancing both worlds, with his heart firmly planted in Oklahoma.

BLAKE SHELTON: This is a stream that you step out of and when you realize you want back in it. It's-- it's dry and then there's no water in that stream anymore.

(End VT)

JAN CRAWFORD: Now, with live music two nights a week and the chance to bump into Blake Shelton at the bar, the owners are hoping that Ole Red Tishomingo is going to become a tourist destination. And when this venue opens in a few months, you can bet it's going to be a big draw on what's the hottest street in country music. Gayle.

GAYLE KING: All right. Jan, thanks. I think Ole Red is going to do okay.

NORAH O'DONNELL: I agree.

GAYLE KING: Yeah.

CHARLIE ROSE: Off to a good start.

GAYLE KING: Off to a very good start. Listen, who wants-- doesn't want to go somewhere where they promise you a crap load of fun. I'd go there. Sounds like my kind of party. Thank you, Jan.

NORAH O'DONNELL: He is one of my favorite country music stars and I profiled him for 60 MINUTES.

GAYLE KING: Yeah.

NORAH O'DONNELL: And he is one of the most authentic people I have ever met.

GAYLE KING: Nice, nice guy.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Yeah. He's terrific.

GAYLE KING: I-- I like him very much, too.