Roughstock (March 1st 2010)
Blake Shelton Tries On His Hillbilly Bone
Despite delivering hit after hit, Blake Shelton saw his album sales slide over the last pair of albums. To combat this problem and address the digital market, the new album will be a 'six pack' EP. Blake discussed this idea and more.
With the ever changing landscape of the music industry, an artist (and record label) have to be able to adjust to the changes that are presented to them and with the way that the internet and places like iTunes and Amazon have changed the way we get our music, artists like Blake Shelton and his Warner Brothers Nashville record label have had to become proactive about how to release music for consumption. After a string of hits Blake has partnered with the label to bring out a new ‘album’ format called a “Six Pack.” While it remains to be seen if this expierment will find Nashville leading the industry like it did towards albums in the 50s and 60s, Blake Shelton has certainly taken to the format. We discuss the new Hillbilly Bone album and Blake’s relation to the internet, his Twitter addiction and much more in an exclusive conversation for Roughstock.
Matt Bjorke: How has twitter enhanced or changed your relationship with the fans?
Blake Shelton: Oh man, it’s definitely changed it. And it’s hard to say that it’s changed it for the good or the bad but I gotta think it’s changed it for the good. I think it’s just more or less allowed me to step out there and show people who I am and what I stand for. Just kinda my personality mostly.
It’s kinda funny, I haven’t even been on Twitter for what seems like two weeks now but it’s amazing to me to be yourself and to not be that kind of happy-go-lucky celebrity that people expect you to be and when you are not that, there’s only one category for you to be and that’s as an a**hole or jerk. It cracks me up just to see how people react to these tweets, like “I’m hung over from last night” or “I just peed in the bed” and it cracks me up how they respond to that negatively when you’re not giving them something that that they think you should be. I’ll never understand that about human nature but I guess it is what it is.
But for the most part, the majority of people think it’s entertaining and know I’m just joking around and they respond accordingly with their own jokes or come backs. It’s all in good fun, really.
Matt: I think that if I was an artist I don’t know if I would mind losing that ‘fan’ if they’re not going to realize that I’m not as ‘family friendly’ as they thought I was, because even though losing fans can be tough, were they really a fan anyway?
Blake Shelton: Right. And my music never has been. If you look at what I do, “Ol Red” is a song about a murder. A song about a guy killing his wife and her boyfriend, and songs like “The More I Drink” and it’s just amazing to me about how people create this image of you or this thing they want you to be and they take offense to it. I’m never going to be that guy, so it’s better that they learn that I’m never going to be that guy so it’s better that they figure that out now. (laughs). And to be honest right now, I know I do it too much so I took a break from it for the last few weeks, with this album launch.
Matt: In general what are your thoughts about the internet and its relation to your career?
Blake: Like it or not, it’s more than just related to my career. I can remember 10 years ago talking about today, when I was still on Giant Records before I even had a single out. We talked about the day that would come where people would only get their music off the internet and how country music would be the last to jump on board. Now, with what they’re doing with my music, because the majority of people buying my records or at least the singles and whatnot on the internet, it seems like this year is that year. we’ve restructured how we’re releasing my album with the six-pack going to retail. It’s all because of the internet.
Honestly, I love it. I was one of the ones they’re talking about it, the average fan. Maybe a little bit bigger than most because of how much I spend on music. Now, if I hear a song on the radio, or think of one, three minutes later I own it. I love not having to go to the record store to get it, especially because of living out in the middle of nowhere and knowing good and well they aren’t likely to have what I want anyway. So to have it on my phone as quickly as I want it, it’s nice.
Matt: It’s also good because say you want a David Allen Coe song, Walmart isn’t likely gonna carry it anyway…
Blake (laughs): That’s right…
Matt: Honestly, I think that the internet is going to help country music because the core audience is that rural audience like you, folks who live in the country or live on a farm not close to a store and if it does, it’s Walmart and they only have the top 10 artists or albums.
Blake: That’s right. I can remember times not more than maybe three years ago where I’d take a half a day off at least to go to both Ernest Tubb Record Shops in Nashville to find the things that I want that couldn’t be found back in Oklahoma. Because, obviously Walmart isn’t going to carry something that was made 20 years ago because, honestly, they don’t need to and I can’t find it at Hastings in Ada, Oklahoma but I knew I could find it here at Ernest Tubb Record Shops but now it’s in the palm of my hand and I love it.
Matt: You’re about to release a new record called “Hillbilly Bone,” the first “Six-Pack” album from you. How does the “six-pack” format appeal to you? Is it that you can get newer material out to fans quicker via smaller albums?
Blake: Yeah, there are two sides to this. And I only know my side. The Six Pack wasn’t my idea, It was presented to me by Scott Hendricks at Warner Brothers. And I don’t know and honestly I don’t care how the record company makes this work dollars wise because that’s not how I make my money anyway. I make my money touring on the road. I looked at this as a way to release more than one album a year or instead of just one every two years, which is what we do. I can release new music every time I release a single, if this works. There’s a lot of publicity and promotion that comes from releasing an album and I’ll get that everytime we do this and publishers here in Nashville are into this I think, because they will get more songs recorded way mor. Instead of 12 songs every two years, this is a six song album every five or six months. It’s a way to keep the wheels turning in Nashville more but for me it’s just a way to keep my fans engaged and to know that there’s music coming all the time.
We focused more on each song. There is a real reason for each song on the Six Pack album instead of just ‘album-fillers.’ Each song was put under a microscope because each song will have a mini marketing plan involved with it. For example there’s a song on the album called “Kiss My Country Ass.” You and I both know that it could never be a single at country radio but it will have it’s own publicity and a small groundswell. It will be fun and a little intense for the first few Six Packs we do to see how it works but it should be a lot of fun.
Matt: You know, in some ways if this had been around back when you released “Home,” it would’ve worked better than tacking it onto an album.
Blake: Absolutely, you know, when you find that song that can not only change your career but your momentum at a record company, it’s a shame when you have those and sometimes you have to wait to release it for a year to a year and a half to release it because you just released an album three months before that. You have to hope you don’t lose the song. This way we can react to it quickly and that’s refreshing.
Matt: well I think that if any format is gonna make this work, it’s country because they used to do a similar thing back in the day with six new tracks and some covers to fill out the album…
Blake: We all have our fingers crossed…
Matt: What draws you to a song first, the melody or the lyric?
Blake: Well the melody always draws me first but the song lyrics are important because I won’t ever record something that wouldn’t matter to me lyricly. When writing a song, it starts with the melody but then the idea has to come or I go to my notes to get lyrics that work.
Matt: How did the duet with Trace Adkins come about?
Blake: Man, when I first heard the song, I was driving around in my truck; actually it was Miranda and myself together. I think we may have been going fishing that day, but anyway, I had been mailed a CD that said “Big Loud Shirt” on it, which is Craig Wiseman’s publishing company, and I didn’t even know it at the time. So I thought “I wonder what this is,” I knew it was a pitch CD for the album and as soon as I heard his voice on the album, I knew who it was. “Hillbilly Bone” was the first song on the CD and we heard the verse and chorus and we said, “no, we can’t do it.” Then we skipped to the next track and it played all the way through and the second time I heard it, it was one of those deals like “Why can’t I do that?” and maybe because I’ve never done a song like this before it was a bit scary. But then we thought whoever does this song, it’s a big record. And as we’re driving around in my four wheel drive truck with mud on the side and a just-bought 12 pack of beer to go fishin, I thought “I Am that guy, I am that song.” Then Miranda said, “it kind of sounds like a Trace Adkins song” and I said, “yeah, it does.”
So we thought about him coming in and doing the bass voice in the chorus and it all kind of started for there. Once that idea was in my head that Trace should be on it, I didn’t let up until it happened. We talked about doing something together and he had a song he wanted me to record with him an album or two ago that he didn’t end up recording so we’ve had the idea for a while and it didn’t take much to get him to come in and do it.
Matt: The other tracks on the Hillbilly Bone album run from the fun of the title song to the ballad “You’ll Always Be Beautiful.” Was it important for you to include songs that touched on both the ‘fun’ and ‘romantic’ sides of you as an artist?
Blake: Yeah, but with this album the attitude is a bit different than ballads in the past. These are more honest as far as in that song he’s talking about this girl and that every year on her birthday she gets wasted and he carries her to the car, and it’s just a real relationship. It’s about best friends and knowing each other so well and having accepted each other as best friends who aren’t going away. I love that sarcasm about the song and that he says I’m staying by your side no matter what.
Matt: it sounds like a real love song, not a sunshine and roses and love’s not always like that.
Blake: It’s a real honest love song and honestly love is never like that (sunshine and roses) (laughs).
Matt: Will there be a follow-up single to “Hillbilly Bone” from the Six Pack?
Blake: No, I think the idea that “Hillbilly Bone” is the single off of this six pack and then we’ll move on to the next project with the next single. Like I said before, I love it as long as it’s working. I’m all about it as long as I think my fans are getting the right deal, I’ll be happy either way. The second it starts looking like it’s not fair to them or think that they’re getting ripped off or something and that they don’t like it for some reason, I’ll ask the label to stop. But for now, I don’t see how that can be.
Matt: It seems to me that your label is being proactive and thinking outside the box about this situation against the old-school way of holding tight to what is known for the last dollar…
Blake: I love how proactive they’re being. Truthfully, this may just be a way to stop the bleeding for recording companies for a while so that they can get a handle on the digital world because people, for the most part, are just going to buy the single online and not be interested in the full album. This is just a way for record companies to get people back into the stores and prolong stuff as long as they can and I think the Six Pack is great for that.
Matt: Your past albums have contained many hits, is there an album cut on any of them that you like to play live?
Blake: Yeah, well we normally won’t play album tracks once we move on to a new project and we just did that here two weeks ago as we move on from the Startin’ Fires album. And it sometimes is hard to move on because we like the album cuts so much and believe in them. I’ve never had an album yet that I didn’t feel strongly about but at some time it’s time to move on from that album to the next album and grow them.
Matt: Well, I guess that’s good for the fans that come to every show you do near their hometowns because they get to hear something fresh mixed with the hits.
Blake: Right. Well, for us it’s gotten harder, especially the last year in a half and the spots for album cuts have gotten fewer and fewer between. We just played the rodeo in Houston and we had an hour time slot and we just cut a couple hits off the set list and I was like holy (expletive) when did that happen? It’s a pretty awesome feeling because, you know, when I started this thing in 1994 I thought that if I could get a greatest hits album out, I would feel like I’ve made it. And now I may ever have one now so without that, to cut out some hits from the set really felt like I really had made it now. It was a really great moment for me.
Matt: Collin Raye has recorded medleys of some hits in order to not disappoint fans who come for that one hit. So perhaps you’ll have to do that down the line.
Blake: Right, it will probably happen.
Matt: You’ve performed a duet with Trace and recorded with your girlfriend Miranda Lambert, is there any other artist, current or past, that you’d like to record a duet with?
Blake: I’d still love to get in the studio with Earl Thomas Conley one day, a personal great thing for me. I had a chance to perform with the Bellamy Brothers for the Dukes of Hazzard soundtrack (“Redneck Girl,” ) I’ve sung with George Jones and John Anderson and Miranda. This next project that comes out has Jessica Harp singing on it and I’ve had a lot of guest appearances but I’d say that Earl Thomas Conley is the one I’d love to get into the studio with the most.
Matt: What do you like best about being out on tour?
Blake: I’d say that hour and a half on stage. I’ve seen most of the country by this point so the only thing that still stays new everynight is actually being on stage performing for the fans.
Matt: When touring with other artists, like Brad Paisley, do you create ‘pranks?’ If so, what are some of your favorite ones?
Blake: Well, I’ve never really been much of a prank guy, I’m more known just as a smart ass around the industry (laughing). But I’ve definitely had some pulled on me. About seven or eight years ago I had Brad Paisley on the bus and I was excited to play him “The Baby,” which I had just recorded.” He listened to it and left and about two days later it stunk so bad on the bust it’d make you wanna through up so we tore up the bus looking for a dead rat or something and we found a stick-up air freshener that had raw chicken meat in it. It took us about three more days to find that. I still haven’t gotten him back for that…
Matt: What would you like to say to fans who may be reading about Blake Shelton for the first time, perhaps because of “Hillbilly Bone”?
Blake: Yeah, I’d tell them that there’s more where that came from. I do really feel like this last year or so that I have reached a new audience, for whatever reason, and I think it’s the perfect time because now people can buy this new record (Hillbilly Bone) and get a good taste of who I am and what I wanna do. So for under six bucks they can give me a shot.