News OK (March 2nd 2010)

Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins share ‘Hillbilly Bone’ secrets

via The Boot

Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins teamed up for the song/video 'Hillbilly Bone.' The song just grabbed the coveted No. 1 spot on the country charts, and the video is a hoot, featuring two hillbilly/cowboy types (Blake and Trace) sauntering into an upscale restaurant trying to prove "we all got a hillbilly bone deep inside."

Blake has always wanted to do a project with his good buddy Trace.

"I would say within about three listens to it, I knew I wanted to record it," Blake tells blog.newsok.com. "Within that same amount of time, I also knew that I would want Trace Adkins on it with me just because it sounded to me like a Trace Adkins song. So once I made the decision that I was going to record it, and I talked to my producer about it, I told him, 'Man, really we should get Trace Adkins in there to sing that bass part on the choruses.' And so we called Trace, and he said he would do it."

Blake says that they "lived with" the track for a while, before deciding that it still needed more Trace. "So we called him back, and said, 'Hey, man, could you come back and sing a verse with me.' And he said he would do it, and I can't imagine the song without him on it now."

"It was fun, and Blake's one of my favorite people in this business," says Trace. "Any time I get to work with him, hang out with him, we always enjoy that and have a lot of fun with it."

Trace adds that "the funniest stuff was cut out, really."

Blake agrees, explaining, "Some of our moments that Trace and I have together aren't even appropriate for each other. We give each other some serious hell just being buddies. A lot of people don't realize that Trace is one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. He's just such a big guy and his sense of humor is so dry, I think he scares more people than anything. But man, I had an absolute ball. But Trace and I's biggest problem when we get together is just trying to keep our language clean; it's almost like who can insult each other the worst.”