Las Vegas Review-Journal (March 15th 2012)

Shelton keeps it real, wouldn't mind LV residency

Few celebrities are as funny and candid on Twitter as Blake Shelton, the country singer and judge on "The Voice." Last month, his country star wife, Miranda Lambert, made him do laundry. He went a-tweeting. "Folding the third pile of laundry Miranda has handed me tonight," he posted on Twitter and joked: "This is (expletive)!! Clothes should be disposable like toilet paper!!!"

Shelton is singing Saturday at Mandalay Bay, so I called him up and asked why he and Lambert don't have 10 maids doing their laundry. "There are some things that she and I draw the line at. If we ever get to the point where we don't fold our own towels and underwear, we need to get our asses kicked," he said.

Shelton and Lambert are like a new version of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, a dynamic country duo. Not only was he named Male Vocalist of the Year at the 2010 and 2011 Country Music Association awards, he's a breakout TV star on "The Voice." Lambert was CMA's 2010 and 2011 Female Vocalist of the Year, and she's doing guest spots on "The Voice" with him.

Shelton says they are working hard and smart now, so someday they can "relax and not have to tour until we're on our walkers."

"My goal would be to someday tour like George Strait tours - go out and do 15 shows a year, and flip Nashville the bird, and say 'I'll see you next year.'"

So why aren't Shelton and Lambert touring together, the way McGraw and Hill have?

"We'll probably get there someday. It's not something we're mapping out at this point," Shelton said. 

He wouldn't mind doing a Vegas residency, the way Garth Brooks pops in and out of the Wynn-Encore on various weekends of the year. 

"That would be a cool gig, too. If any of the big casino people are reading this, I'd be up for a big, Garth Brooks-type show in Vegas."

Shelton sure is doing Vegas a lot. On March 31, he hosts the NRA Country/ACM Celebrity Shoot at Desert Hills Shooting Club. On April 1, he will co-host the Academy of Country Music Awards at the MGM Grand. He also wouldn't mind coming back to do a guest spot in Cee Lo Green's residency at Planet Hollywood come fall, although he and Cee Lo (his fellow judge on "The Voice") haven't talked about it. Cee Lo so far has only said his Planet Hollywood Resort shows will combine music, magic and sexy showgirls.

Shelton said he has no idea what Cee Lo will come up with in Vegas, but it should be fun. Cee Lo may be a superstar genius, solo hip-hop singer and half of Gnarls Barkley, but Shelton has noticed "the guy loves rock."

"You think of him as hip-hop, or R&B, and he fits in a lot of molds," Shelton said. "But his passion is '80s rock, like Billy Idol, and people like that. It never ceases to amaze me how much he's into that stuff and knows about it. So I wouldn't be surprised to see some of that" at the Planet Hollywood shows.

As for Shelton's own music, his 2011 album "Red River Blue" already has spawned three singles, and two more singles might come out of it. But Shelton already is working on a new album. His method of songwriting is super responsible: He cuts two or three songs here and there throughout the year. When his label asks for a new album, he usually has one almost ready.

And yet, he also hopes to squeeze out a Christmas album this year. He and I have the same favorite holiday song, "I'll Be Home For Christmas." But he's a sucker for most Christmas tunes, "even the ones I don't even know what they mean," he said.

"There's one on Anne Murray's Christmas album, 'Christmas In Killarney.' I don't even know where in the hell Killarney is, but it puts me in the damn Christmas mood. I listen to that one a lot." (FYI: It's an Irish town.)

But this weekend, he's all about Mandalay Bay. He has been personally booking hotel rooms for 15 or more family members. It wasn't his idea to bring everyone to Vegas. It's just one of those Vegas things. "You don't hear from people for a year - until you play Vegas. And then you hear from everybody that you've ever known."